Ben 10: Game of Life
by mak89
Summary: As if surviving against various evil versions of himself and the vicious space tyrant Vilgax wasn't enough,One day No Watch Ben Tennyson woke up realizing that he could see Titles and levels flying over his head and his entire world is shifted into a game like setting.Will he ever figure out how to use this power to become a hero like Ben Prime or he will die trying?
1. Chapter 1

**The Beginning**

"It's boring." Ben muttered staring at the computer screen in front of him, It played the new adventure action RPG belonging to sumo slammer franchise.

That was supposed to be one of the long awaited release of this year, Every fan of the franchise had been eagerly waiting for this. And Ben was not an exception from that, Or at least that's what he thought before all common sense were thrown out of the window a few weeks back. Ben Tennyson was an ordinary seventeen year old highschool student. His family originally hailed from America but when he was in middle school, his parents had to move to Japan due to their new jobs. He was reasonably in a good shape. He used to attend a local self defense academy since last few years and very recently he stopped going there due to the overload of education. He had sparkling green eyes, brown hair and mostly sported caucasian features. Fifteen days ago, on a fateful night, He came to learn about the existence of parallel dimensions. Not only that, He was a superhero in every dimension apart from this one. He also got to learn about the awe inspiring scientific wonder called omnitrix which allowed it's bearer to transform into any alien species he/she desired to. He even got to wield it for one time and actually save the day.

Like an actual superhero. That was awesome.

When everything else seemed to be over, And his good heroic versions were vaporized , He jumped in like a badass, Put the awesome alien tech on his wrist, Travelled through time and alternative universes , wrestled against his evil versions of ...himself and defeated a highly dangerous intergalactic war lord. That was surely a life changing experience and after that Ben couldn't claim to be the same person ever again.

However despite all that, Ben still felt bored. Nothing could match the excitement he felt while wearing that watch and transforming into aliens. Ben didn't have a lot of people who he could call close friends. It wasn't like he was anti social or something like that. Well, most likely it seemed that everyone around him were busy with their lives and had no time to form actual attachments. Besides he always felt like an outsider, even though people were mostly nice to him on surface level, he has never been included in any sort of group. It was sort of frustrating though and seemed like ever since he had arrived to Japan, He has been bashing his head against sort of glass ceiling, unable break through despite his best efforts. Being foreign did little to help him in the friends category. As a transfer student he carried the moniker of trouble maker with him, People always expected him to prove that he was nice and respectful towards their environment, without giving him the same sort of respect in return. Some mean spirited classmates often whispered thing behind his back, criticizing him for his choices, the way he addressed people, the way he dressed...but Ben didn't care. He knew better to let himself be bothered by them.

"Damn, They never manage to match up to the hype." Stretching out his limbs, Ben let out yawn. He hoped that this new game would be more exciting and would give him at least a week's worth of entertainment. However that turned out to be just a cheap rip off of the original one with a few added dungeons and worthless OCs. Totally not worth his money. Signing off from the computer screen, Ben turned it off. His eyes drifted towards the room's window, Sun was still shining through his curtains. Scratching the back of his head lazily, He started making his way towards downstairs from his room. He was quickly graced by the sight of Sandra Tennyson, Who had been working diligently in the kitchen.

"Mom." Ben called out from the stairs, turning his head towards the kitchen " I am going out to take a stroll!"

The blonde woman gave him a slight stare of observation, " Okay, but make sure to come home before night." She conclude with warm smile and went back to chopping the vegetables. "And your mom would be really sad if anything bad happened to you, Do you understand young man?" Sandra gave a sickeningly sweet smile, All while pointing out her knife towards Ben.

"Umm...Don't worry Mom...I am not going anywhere far from here." Ben remarked with a sheepish grin.

"Good. I will be making a nice fish for you and Carl today." Sandra smiled at him, All while humming a song which Ben didn't bother to recognize. Ben stared at his mother for a moment, finding it a bit weird that she had been chopping vegetables with the same knife she had been recently pointing in his direction. Before Ben could leave though. Something extremely weird happened. A blue glowing box akin to that of what he witnessed in RPGs, started hovering above her mother's head.

 **Housewife of Tennyson Household**

 **Lvl:12**

 **Name: Sandra Tennyson**

Ben shook his head multiple times. Damn! He was definitely seeing things today. Perhaps it was a very bad idea to watch the entire sumo slammer marathon last night. He waved his hands in front of the blue box but they didn't cause any disturbance.

"That's blasphemy!" Ben cursed under his breath. This must be some sort of delusion. There was no other explanation to come up with. After placing a tight slap on his own cheek, Ben immediately dashed towards the door. Perhaps all he needed was some fresh air. Before he could exit through the main door, He was stopped by none other than his own mother. Ben dumbfounded as he saw a big golden question mark hovering over her head.

"Can you buy the groceries for tomorrow?" Sandra asked with a kind smile, " And you can keep the change."

Ben raised an eyebrow, curious about how this would go. After all his past experiences kinda made him a lot more braver in regards of weird things. _"Let's see how this goes."_ A blue window popped up in front of him

 **A Quest had been created**

There was a "?" in the right corner and arrow in the left corner. Without wasting any further moment, Ben pressed the arrow.

 **Quest Alert**

 **Mother Problem**

 **Your Mother trusted you to carry out the simple task of buying food for tomorrow and to come back before sun will set**

 **Time Limit** **: The task must be completed before seven pm. extra bonus would be awarded if it gets completed before 6:15 pm**

 **Completion Reward: 400 Exp, Increased Closeness from your mother**

 **Completion Failure: Decrease reputation with your parents. Nagging Mom, Decrease of Mom's faith in you**

Ben shrugged, He had no idea what the hell was going on. But he decided to roll with it. He had enough faith in himself that he wasn't going crazy. However there was no other way to prove what he was experiencing right now.

"Alright Mom, I would do it for you." Ben replied with a bright grin. Quickly touching the yes button in the blue window.

Sandra smiled and fondly ruffled Ben's brown unruly hair. The sensation of her hands moving between his hair was enough to prove that he wasn't dreaming.

"Here." She handed him over the money and the paper which had a list of groceries he needed to buy. " Don't lose the money and be careful on your way to the store."

"I will Mom, Don't worry about me." Ben replied and quickly exited through the door.

...cccccccc...ccccccccc...

Rest of the walk was pretty quite affair and Ben moved a lot more slower than he generally did. He was quite astonished to see level markers above everyone's head. Most children were at level 1 and adults ranged from 10 to 15. Those who seemed closer to seventeen or eighteen were either policeman or firefighters , Though the ones he encountered were in an extremely good shape so he couldn't take that information entirely into consideration . However during this time he encountered a few individuals with "?" over their heads. What did that mean? He wasn't allowed see their levels? Or it was so much high from his own that he couldn't get a reading out of them.

 **A special skill had been created through a special act.**

Ben blinked in surprise once again. Those windows and numbers...they weren't leaving him alone...no matter how much he tried. Sighing in defeat he tapped onto the blue box which popped up in front of him. The moment he did that...another one appeared in it's place

 **Through continuous observation, a skill to find the target's information, 'Observe' Lv.1 had been created**

Ben gawked at the new pop up in orange. What the hell was that? He should be freaking out by now and rush to a mental hospital but he was standing here, acting like this was another Wednesday. Ben was completely surprised at his newfound calm demeanor. He looked around himself, continuing to notice the various pop up boxes which kept appearing one after another. He blinked when he realized that he completely forgot to take notice of the countdown timer which appeared in the corner of his sight. It seemingly floated in mid air, just like the blue pop up boxes and began to countdown from two hours.

Much to his dismay another window popped up.

 **[Observe]'s level has risen by one.**

"Those things can get a level up too. Damn, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder." Ben facepalmed. Another blue window popped up infront of him.

 **Observe (Active) LV 2 EXP: 0.00% MP: 5**

 **Description: Knowledge is power. With the right information, you can turn any adverse situation in your favor. A skill to observe object and being that allow the user to quickly gather information. The higher the level, the greater the data obtained. The greater the amount of knowledge and insight the user has, the more information displayed.**

Ben dumbfounded once again. He had no idea what was going on but it appeared that he gained some sort of skill. That can't be bad. So he can create new skills out of nowhere and level them up. Similar to the video games he used to play. The young Tennyson wouldn't deny anything that had been offered to him. However a message suddenly appeared, quickly killing his excitement.

 **By thinking in a logical and concise manner, your WIS went up by one.**

A tick mark grew over Ben's head after reading this,. whoever was doing that to him was starting to piss him off but he didn't get much time to ponder about that.

 **Sub Quest Alert**

 **Don't be late: Arrive to Grocery store on time.**

 **You have twenty minutes to arrive to class before you're late.**

 **Completion Award: 100 Exp. Thirty percent added bonus in the reward of main quest and a surprise event before the end of main quest.**

 **Completion Failure: 29 Exp. No extra perks added in the main quest reward.**

 **Yes-No**

"What the...Damn , Give me a moment!" Ben shouted before quickly tapping on to yes. He began sprinting towards the store with as much speed as he could possibly muster. He accidentally ended up knocking into some bystanders but he didn't pay much attention to it. His eyes were solely focused onto the small timer which began to countdown in his peripheral vision.

Ben barely managed to slid into the store with twenty seconds left

 **You have barely managed to reach in time. Mission accomplished.**

 **Completion Awarded: 100 Exp and you may have the surprise encounter before the ending of main quest.**

Ben didn't have much time to pay attention to the hovering messages. He was busy huffing and puffing due to sprinting on most of his way while arriving here. Granted he recovered very quickly but that was **damn** exhausting. Once he gathered his bearings, Ben quickly accepted all the messages. He was surprised at reading about the encounter but decided not to pay much attention to it. Besides it wasn't like he would get to know anything beforehand. He would get to know what the event is once it actually occurs.

He had dealt with evil versions of himself, A vicious Cthulhu look a like who wanted to take over the world and rescuing his good versions across the space and time. There wasn't much out there which could faze him.

Except the fact that he could live the real life like a video game. That was a huge shocker no matter how you look at it.

Needless to say, from now on, boredom was the last thing he will be worrying about in his life.

...ccccccccc...ccccccccc...

Finishing the grocery pretty quickly, Ben exited the market area. Nothing eventful happened on his way back. Except probably a few weird stares when Ben was playing around the imaginary screens , Most likely trying to swipe the life bar out of his sight. Either this whole video game abilities was a gift from God or he couldn't handle the shock of the last adventure he had and completely went delusional. The latter wasn't too far from what he was feeling right now. Once he started thinking about the entire ordeal, He wondered. If this was actually something like a video games. What about his own status? It can't be just quests and experience.

Then it occurred to him that if this was a game he should be able to access some sort of command prompt, similar to how he could access his life bar and quests. But the question was that how he could access that.

 **By thinking in a logical and concise manner, You managed to increase your WIS by 1**

Ben frowned at hearing that but instead of paying attention to it, He focused on more pressing matters. "Profile." Ben tried first, "Menu, Load, Title, Save, Pause... Status...

Once the last word left Ben's mouth a huge orange pop up window opened infront of him.

 **Name: Ben Tennyson**

 **Class: Gamer**

 **Title: No Watch (25% increase in WIS and INT, 10℅ increase in LUK per level, 10% increase in [?] per level, 40% increase in experience gain up to Lvl 20)**

 **Level: Lvl 12**

 **HP: 500/500**

 **MP: 430/430**

 **STR: 12**

 **VIT: 17(+5)**

 **DEX: 18(+5)**

 **INT: 20( +10)**

 **WIS: 23(+10)**

 **LUK: 16(+12)**

 **Status: ?(+5 VIT, +5 DEX, +10 INT, +10 WIS, +?% experience to [?] Skill, ? (+120 HP & +120 MP Per Level)**

 **Omnitrix, A powerful and highly sophisticated scientific wonder which allows its bearer to transform into any sapient alien species to ever exist , In each and every Universe existing in multiverse community the device is wielded by one and only Ben Tennyson. An ordinary ten years old human who eventually grew up to be a legendary Super hero. However in one and only this dimension Ben Tennyson didn't get to wield the Omnitrix. However that doesn't make him any less of a hero. He may look like an ordinary highschool student studying in prestigious Kuoh Academy, But make no mistake, He has a glorious and vulnerable destiny ahead of him. Someday he would change the world, For better or worse.**

 **Money: 500 Yen**

 **Points to spend : 36**

Ben narrowed down his eyes in front of the screen. His statistics didn't appear to be super awesome, however at the same time, They weren't completely awful too. For starters, It wasn't that bad. And he at least seemed somewhat above average from what he could gather. To get a little bit more information about it, Ben pressed the ? symbol which was placed in the corner of his Status window. Instantly several small boxes appeared in black with yellow-ish writing pointing out to each area of the Status window. A brief explanation about what they actually meant. Well, It wouldn't hurt to at least know what they meant in here. In general Ben knew what those meant. Every single person who ever played an RPG had heard about them but it wouldn't hurt to spare another glance at them.

Besides he had frigging thirty six points to spare, That was awesome!

Ben heard from his Grandfather Maxwell Tennyson that, Human beings are gifted in some ways by the creator. In rare occasions, They are able to display superpowers when unexpected trouble arise. And sometimes they could even defy the very course of nature itself.

The key points being " In rare occasions" and "sometimes"

But, That didn't do jackshit about explaining Ben's current situation.

 **LUK: Luck is the chance of an event falling in your favor, Mostly in Non combat situations and sometimes in Combat situations. This could affect gambling and lottery. Also chances of getting a good loot.**

 **STR:Strength effects how much damage your physical and weapon attacks inflict upon an enemy, Also how much damage you can reduce while parrying an attack. Speed is increased by 0.25 when both STR and DEX gets equally increased by 1**

 **VIT:Vitality represents your overall Health bar and endurance. More Vitality you have, More damage you can take and the longer you can continue a fight. Your ability to recover HP while not being in combat is also affected by this. Not just that, Critical chance is increased by 0.25 when both VIT and INT gets equally increased by 1**

 **DEX: Dextersity reflects your overall agility, Your ability to dodge enemy attacks and the accuracy of your own attacks. Speed is increased by 0.25 when both STR and DEX gets equally increased by 1**

 **INT: Intelligence reflects your overall MP, How quickly your Mana or magical power recovers and how much damage your energy attacks cause. Your memory and overall learning aptitude is also affected by this. Critical chance is increased by 0.25 when both INT and VIT gets equally increased by 1.**

 **WIS: Wisdom reflects overall how wise you are, If you can make right decisions at the right time and how well you can make use of the information you possess. This has a massive impact on your overall ability to control your MP more effectively. How much EXP you gain after accomplishing quests also depend a little bit on this attribute.**

 **Status: Throughout the course of game, you can acquire and unveil any number of status effects, Temporary such as Stun, Paralyse etc or Permanent such as [Devil], [Angel] etc. Some permanent effects requires the piece of core technology which can morph the genetic code of one species into another.**

 **Titles: There are many titles available in this game and their gains vary from one another. Most of the times, They are beneficial.**

Ben couldn't help but sigh. Processing through all that information was surely going to give him a huge head ache. Ben closed the menu, placed the grocery bag along with the charge money and swiftly started making his way towards his home. After all, He needed to get there before timer hit zero. However unbeknownst to him, An arduous task was about to fall in his hands and once it happened...His life would never be the same afterwards.

 **A Ben 10 Gamer fic, We have a lot of unusual scenarios in this crossover section. Azmuth being a Dragon God, Ben turning into a Woman, Ben being childhood friends with Rias and the list goes on and on. So, The idea about him being The Gamer isn't that far fetched . Especially in a universe like DxD and I am pretty sure most of us know about the Gamer Manhawa and that series' mechanics. If you don't, Then please check it out on Internet. It's a very solid series. If Naruto, Harry Potter and Issei Hyoudou can be written with Gamer abilities, Then why not Ben 10?**

 **What do you say friends? I hope you like it :)**


	2. Chapter 2

The walk back was pretty quite affair. The fact that he could live his life like a video game didn't bother him that much. He wondered though, How he could use this weird power and if there were any side effects from it. Because just like Ben 10000 spoke to him before parting way with him, with great powers came great difficulties to overcome. And he could see that after wielding Omnitrix for a few hours and dealing with Eon. There was so much baggage to handle if you are a superhero. Being a superhero was a hard work, especially with all those crappy situations they found themselves in. Ben couldn't call himself a superhero yet. But he wasn't exactly normal either.

Ben spent most of his time using **[Observe]** over most of the things and people he encountered. Causing it to level up from 1 to 4. It was pretty weird that he could recover HP and MP from eating food or using various medicines. Though the number of points he could recover were extremely small. Infact comparing that to his HP and MP, He could ignore that all together if he wanted. However that also got Ben to start thinking. If he had the ability to live his life like a video game character, He could find quests and get rewards from completing it...then does that mean he would be also facing monsters just like a real game protagonist?

Or he would be forced to deal with an evil villain who is way more powerful than him in every aspect?

That was a scary thought. Ben wouldn't be much concerned if he had access to Omnitrix just like his multiversal counterparts. He was still pretty much an ordinary guy who could be easily killed by human means. And apart from his parents and a few people who knew him...no one would care if he was about to be killed. Besides he was just one person, amidst all those great individuals born in the world. Besides he acknowledged that he wasn't perfect. He wasn't the best person to make example of. He wasn't some superhero unlike Ben Prime who could inspire hope and greatness in people. Just because he somehow got this weird ability, didn't necessarily mean that he became a crucial person who could shoulder the weight of entire world on his shoulders.

But still he didn't want to give up. Not yet. Even though this power didn't seem much at the moment, It did provide him a small window. Who knows perhaps he may figure out one day how to make use of it. He might even become a great man in the future, something his parents and Ben Prime would be proud to see. This was an opportunity in disguise and he wasn't going to waste it.

Afterall Omnitrix or the ability to live your life as video game, They were just mere tools. In the end it depended upon the person about how he/she used them to achieve greatness.

 **By making a wise decision, your WIS has increased by 1.**

Ben blinked as a blue window popped up in front of him. Surprising Ben. What did he do to receive a point just like that? Or the system took a pity on him and decided to offer him a point, just to cheer him up. Though Ben wondered, Does not giving up counted as a wise decision? Sometimes, It was better to leave while you still can. Or not. He was still pretty conflicted about that topic.

After wandering aimlessly through the streets, casually glancing everywhere if anyone was able to see all those digital windows opening up in front of his eyes but it didn't seem like anyone could see what was going on with him. He stopped to sit on a lone bench, thinking carefully about his situation.

"Hmmm...I wonder if I have an Inventory..." The moment those words left his mouth, A large screen popped in front of him. Consisting of a six by six thirty eight grid window, a black shaped dummy, the likes of which he used to see in clothe shops or sometimes even medical institutions , There were small boxes around the mannequin. Probably indicating what he was wearing and if he was carrying some sort of equipment. On the lower side there was small bar, containing several empty boxes, resembling the hotkey function used in the RPG style games.

Ben took a long breath. This really seemed sorta exciting. He looked around himself, making sure that no one was paying attention to him. He didn't have a faintest idea how this worked but he could definitely give it a try and see what happens! Taking out an apple from his bag, he silently placed it inside one of the boxes, suddenly he felt a strange vacuum, some sort of attractive force absorbing the apple in. His eyes widening in shock and disbelief as a rather small version of apple appeared in one of the boxes he was experimenting with in the first place. He tried once again to pull the apple out and towards his surprise, He felt his hand brushing against the vacuum once again before the apple returned back to his hands, In it's original size. He tried with other items in his grocery bag, though as discreetly as possible, trying his best to not to grab anyone's attention by making things appear and disappear out of thin air. Every time he ended up with the same result.

"Well that was...neat." Ben cracked a smile, feeling a bit impressed. At least he didn't have to worry about carry heavy stuff now because once things were in the inventory their weight didn't matter.

Immediately there was loud Ding! sound which nearly startled Ben again, as multiple screens opened in front of him

 **You gain +1 INT for the correct deductive reasoning**

 **Congratulations! You have successfully completed the tutorial by using the [Inventory]**

 **You have acquired three basic skills, randomly generated by the system for you to receive.**

 **Skill unlocked! [Mana Imbuement] skill has been unlocked**

 **Skill unlocked! [Mana Reinforcement] skill has been unlocked**

 **Skill unlocked! [Life Energy Cultivation] skill has been unlocked**

 **[Mana Imbuement] (Passive) [Lvl 2, Exp:15.56%]**

 **Mana, also known as Life Energy, is the name given to the life energy that is present in all living things throughout the entire universe. This skill allows the user to tap into his life force and use it for various means , most of them are yet to be discovered by the user. Due to the User being born of a special heritage , The ability allows user for a faster recovery of MP**

 **107% increased MP Regeneration rate**

 **10% increase in MP recovery rate.**

 **5% increase in total MP amount.**

 **5% increase in magic attack.**

 **5% increase in magic defense.**

 **30% increase in MP related skill effects.**

 **[Mana Reinforcement] (Active/Passive) [Lvl 1, Exp:2.7%, MP 20 per minute]**

 **Due to the user's knowledge of martial arts and him being born of a special heritage, he can now use Mana to reinforce his body , Protecting himself from taking damage. However, A deep bruise is possible and it won't stop the bones from breaking if hit by considerable amount of force but with enough mastery over this skill and a large pool of mana, User can make his skin as strong as iron while still retaining it's texture.**

 **Improves user's defense and reduces the damage taken, Increases depend on User's MP, Mastery over skill and VIT**

 **[Life Energy Cultivation] (Active/Passive) [Lvl 1, Exp:0.0%, MP 55 per minute]**

 **Life Energy Cultivation is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used in the belief that it promotes health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, Life Energy Cultivation is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance Chi, translated as "life energy". Traditionally, knowledge about Life Energy Cultivation was passed from adept master to student in elite unbroken lineages, typically with secretive and esoteric traditions of training and oral transmission, and with an emphasis on meditative practice by scholars and gymnastic or dynamic practice by the working masses.**

 **Many years ago, Humans were considered to be at the bottom of the food chain compared to other life forms such as Youkais , Angels, Demons , Dragons etc, Due to their weak bodies and mind. Malevolent supernatural beings treated as their playthings, Doing whatever they wish with them without fearing for any consequences. However, some chosen individuals with unyielding spirit and highly focused mind managed to harness the world's basic energy, Also referred as Ki. Purifying the energy and storing that inside the center of their bodies with training which was not only extremely rigorous , demanding and required a vast investment of time.**

 **With the development of such techniques human beings became able to overcome to limits of their weak fragile bodies and easily corruptible minds, gaining an immense amount of strength , powers and number of fantastic abilities:** **such powers included but not limited to superhuman strength, prowess and agility, as well as longevity , effectively immortality and/or long lasting youth, healing themselves and others even from a near death state, recovering lost limbs, manipulating the life cycle of vegetation around them...** **such magnificent abilities** **allowed them to not only push back against the supposedly superior supernatural forces, even gaining an upperhand in the fight of survival against them. Proving to the world of Gods, Angels Demons, and Youkai that they were no pushovers once they reached the true potential of their species by** **drawing upon the latent power within oneself.**

 **By learning that even though their bodies were perishable, their soul is eternal and isn't bound in the confinements of mortality and materialistic world, Not only that, It is unmeasurable in length and couldn't be properly understood by using physical terms. Through this understanding human beings eventually discovered immortality in the never ending cycle of life and death, By realizing the fact that, Nature's power flows through everything living and dead like a constant current, they learned to touch upon the great original power residing inside one's soul, in other words one's life force, they managed to draw strength from the world around them itself to survive and flourish with in the harsh reality. Unfortunately that knowledge and those arts eventually became lost to time, only remaining alive through selected practitioners , Making humans claim their previous position of being the playthings of Supernatural beings once again.**

 **Reinforces user's defense, making his body stronger by fortifying his bones and skin texture with his life force. It is said that true masters of this art can also survive and withstand environmental and atmospheric conditions too extreme for a not even normal human beings but supernatural creatures such as Vampires, Werewolves, Kitsunes etc.**

 **Increase in one's abilities depends on the amount of life force(MP) one possesses**

 **The amount of life force (MP) can be trained and permenantly increased through the usage of this skill.**

 **[Touki] becomes available once the skill hits Lvl 30**

 **[Senjutsu : Art of Communicating with Heaven and Earth] becomes available once the skill hits Lvl 50**

 **Increases STR by 18 %**

 **Increases VIT by 18%**

 **Increases DEX by 18%**

 **Increases INT by 12%**

 **Increases WIS by 12%**

 **Additional 30% increase in STR when active**

 **Additional 30% increase in DEX when active**

 **Additional 30% increase in VIT when active**

 **HP regeneration rate increases by 100% while the skill is actively used.**

 **Additional HP recovery per WIS and VIT if the skill being used during meditation.**

 **Additional MP recovery per INT and WIS if the skill being used during meditation.**

 **Additional Stamina recovery per DEX and VIT if the skill being used during meditation**

 **Increases VIT recovery rate by 12%**

 **Increases Stamina recovery rate by 12%**

 **Enhances the [Mana Reinforcement] when active to an unknown degree**

 **Enhances the [Advanced Self Defence] when active to an unknown degree**

 _"Holy crap! That's beyond broken and that's just at level 1. But Damn! It's going to consume a lot of my MP points. Nearly milking my entire MP pool dry Hope this Mana Imbuement thingy will help me out!"_

Ben whistled in approval, barely able to fight down the urge to laugh and dance like a madman. If he was holding a smoothies in his hand, He would have squashed the entire can till it turned into powder and all the contents spilling out, messing his clothes. He just didn't care about anything else right now. It was amazing. He took a long breath as he felt the knowledge flooding inside his head, Despite not knowing much about Ki and Life Energy apart from what he learned at his self defence classes when he was being taught about the Tai Chi portion, He now know about those things. The stuff he previously had no idea about. His entire body became engulfed in a pure snowy aura, everything starting from head to toe vibrating with a strange warmth and energy. After a moment, the glow died and he felt the skills activating themselves, drawing out a bit of latent power inside of him.

He wasn't complaining at all. And he immediately knew that he wanted to level up all three basic skills as much as possible. As quickly as he could possibly manage to. This could very well prove to be his trump card later on.

Hell yeah, This called for celebration. A party of sorts. He should hurry back home and let himself enjoy the Dinner for Emperors his mom was preparing for him.

Unfortunately, before he could relish on his newfound happiness and the sense of achievement much longer, He felt himself suddenly assaulted by an impending sense of doom

He looked at the starry sky. Something felt very wrong about today. Even his newfound calm couldn't change the dread he felt in the air. Something dangerous was about to happen today. He felt something similar a few weeks ago and that time he ended up getting attacked by evil versions of himself. And got dragged across space and time a real life version of Doctor Who. It was an adventure of life time but at the same time, scary as hell. He could have died that day if it wasn't for Ben Prime passing over Omnitrix to him before all versions of himself got erased due to the Chrono bomb's explosion. Ben cursed under his breath as a blue window popped up in front of him.

 **You have created a special skill by a special act**

 **By sensing the danger that is coming your way, you have created the skill [Danger Sense]**

 **Danger Sense – Level 1 – Exp 0.0%**

 **Danger Sense is an instinctive ability which allows you to sense any danger that is coming your way, allowing you to get out of the way. The higher the level, the further away you can sense the danger coming from.**

 **Range – 5 meters**

 _"Huh! What else I can do? Shoot webs out of my wrist? Just a few more like and I may as well call myself Spider Ben! Bad reference Ben, If you are named Ben in the Spider-man stories, you are bound to die one way or another."_

Ben looked around himself. Even though everything seemed pretty normal, The only thing which came to his mind that if he didn't move away from here as soon as possible, he would be in huge trouble. His instincts told him to ignore everything and run away from there as fast as possible. And he was about to...

Just then, A loud feminine shout fell on his ears.

"Leave me alone!"

The voice belonged to a very young girl, probably somewhere around fourteen. Ben blinked as looked at a dark alley between two streets. The voice probably came from that direction. He knew it wasn't probably a very good idea. And Ben was pretty sure that wasn't going to end up well for him. However, Ben didn't have it in him to abandon someone who needed his help. Especially when the said person was a child.

Afterall, In every universe, If there was anything Ben Tennyson hated more than anything, that was mean spirited Bullies who took pleasure in hurting others.

After taking a long breath, Ben made up his mind and quickly dashed towards the direction from where the cries of help were coming from. No messages popped up this time around. Instead he was faced with a dreadful silence as he reached closer. Eventually he reached the source of commotion. And what he came across was no less shocking than meeting alternate versions of himself and a strange ability to live his life as real game character.

It was a young girl, somewhere around thirteen or fourteen. She had an appearance of elementary student though. She was wearing a traditional Japanese shrine maiden like clothing. Which consisted mostly of a long red slightly pleated skirt tied with a bow, a white haori (kimono jacket), and some white or red hair ribbons. She has golden, blonde hair tied in a ponytail and matching eyes. Now that wasn't something which bothered Ben.

It was her tails. And not just one. She had nine frigging burning golden fox like tails perturbing behind her back alongside a pair of canine ears which were pointed upwards.

Yeah, that was really shocking.

Other individual appeared to be mostly human. He was a tall, muscular type with semi-long, messy brown hair and a number of piercings on his ears, as well as a prominent stud on his bottom lip. His cheekbones and jawline were extremely well defined, Not having a single since of fat in them. If Ben didn't know any better, He would have assume that the man must have served in some form of military. Though from his pale white skin , Ben could easily tell that he was a foreigner. Just like Ben. He was wielding a foot long sword which glowed with ominous aura. The way he moved around and held his sword, It appeared that this individual must be a professional.

He wore a black coat, which covered most of his upper half. His pants were of matching dark shade. A huge metallic cross hung from his neck. While his clothes were a horrible mismatch about Ben's initial impression about the swordsman being in some form of military, He still wore a pair of black combat shoes. Which appeared to be worn out at first but they were pretty durable. Before Ben could access the situation and realise what was going on, The pop up windows started appearing infront of him.

 **Congratulations! Due to accomplishing the side task, You have unlocked the Bonus event**

 **Quest Alert**

 **Friend of the supernatural**

 **Kunou, The young princess of Youkai is under attack from a stray exorcist. Help her by fending off the exorcist.**

 **Completion reward: 5000 EXP. Increased closeness with Youkai , Increased reputation with ?**

 **Completion failure: Death**

Despite the weird superhuman ability which kept him calm most of the times, Ben shuddered at reading about death. He had the power to live his life as an RPG protagonist, ofcourse he was going to end up fighting monsters. It was nothing but Karma. Ben began cursing at even higher heavens once he spared a look at the second pop up window.

 **There are some quests in the game which you cannot refuse. You must accomplish this task in order to move on with your life. There is no exception. You cannot continue until you finish the task.**

 **Father Roberto -Stray exorcist- Level ?**

 **Kunou- Princess of Kyoto- Level 20**

Ben didn't know what he should worry about the most. The fact that he was somehow paired against someone whose level was at least two times higher than his own or how even the innocent looking little girl had more substantial stats then his own. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be the protagonist here.

Damn! Heroes were supposed to have superpowers in order to deal with the crisis of their lives. And he couldn't do a jackshit against someone like that .

Where the hell were Paradox and Ben Prime when he needed their help the most?

The sixteen year old clenched his fists in anger and helplessness. He was pretty much left to his own devices in regards of this unusual situation. If life had put him in an inescapable situation like that, He wasn't going down without putting up a fight. Either he was going to end up winning this or die trying. Ben looked around himself, Hoping to find something which he could use in his potential fights. In some RPGs they give you a fair chance before you are about to engage in a battle against the boss. Sometimes it was a healing circle which could recover you HP and MP, or even remove all of your status defects. Or a weapon which was still not on level to deal with the boss but a lot more better than the one you currently possess.

Eventually Ben spotted something which might prove to be of some help. Quickly he put his [Observe] skill to use.

 **Lead Pipe - Uncommon quality**

 **Blunt weapon**

 **Durability- 55/55**

 **A discarded lead Pipe of a higher quality which was used in plumbing or other forms of waterworks. While at first glance there isn't anything exceptional about this item, It is surprisingly more durable and heavier than its usual counterparts. It is fairly balanced and somewhat of decent length.**

 **Attack Power: 19-24**

 **Usage requirements: 18 STR, 23 VIT, 22 DEX**

"Well it's no Omnitrix or a cool sword from Final Fantasy but it's better than nothing." Ben muttered to no one in particular. He immediately accessed his status screen. He wanted to be rather wise while distributing his attribute points. Because in RPGs he often ended up making wrong choices and failed to clear end game dungeons or post game stories, Just because he didn't pay much attention about a well balanced stats build. He didn't want to repeat that mistake in real life. Because while playing RPGs you can always start over from the very beginning, use your previous experiences to become better. In real life, there was no such thing as second chance. Once you were to die, You will be gone . Erased from the world of living.

He needed to be very careful in this fight, One wrong step and he would be digging up his own grave. He didn't have time to debate which stat would be better to invest in. Deciding not to think much about it, Ben quickly distributed all of his points equally between STR, VIT and DEX. The three attributes which were essential for his survival.

Quickly picking up the heavy pipe as if it weighed like nothing, Ben held it up in a vice grip. Feeling a little bit more confident, now that he felt strength and energy pouring inside of him. It wasn't much considering who he was up against but in a combat involving life and death, even the smallest details could make a difference.

"It's hero time!" Ben said to himself with a small smile. He cracked his knuckles and stepped out from the shadows. Finally prepared to take on the challenge whether it went one way or the other.

 **Okay, I am changing some things here and there. I hope you enjoy this moving forward with the story :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Father Roberto- Lvl 28**

 **HP- 3300**

 **MP-1800**

 **Description: A hate filled priest who had denounced his faith in God and stopped following the teachings of Bible. An individual with sick and twisted mindset, he takes pleasure in others misery. He finds a crude form of satisfaction in violence and wants nothing more than watch the world burn around him. Due to having trained in the harsh ways of Vatican, he is much more agile and stronger than an ordinary human being. Be mindful before engaging with him because he can easily take you out without even batting an eyelash.**

 **[Observe]'s level has risen by one.**

Instead of announcing himself to the entire world like every anime character he used to know, Ben silently started making his way towards the swordsman. Making sure not to alert him about his presence by walking on tiptoes. Holding his weapon high in the air, Ben charged towards the exorcist like a raging bull. Swinging the lead Pipe with all of his might, he smashed it on the exorcist's neck, managing to knock him down for the moment.

 **Due to thinking things through and actually coming up with an effective strategy, your WIS and INT had gone up by 1.**

Ben would have cheered if he wasn't so focused on beating the crap out of that stray exorcist.

Before the exorcist could get up, Ben took out a can of pepper spray. His mother never let him set foot outside without that. And for once in his life, Ben was grateful that his mother was a little bit overprotective in regards of her son. Without wasting a further moment, Ben emptied the entire can of pepper spray on the exorcist's face. The man gave out an agonizing scream of pain.

"I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS, SNEAKY BASTARD!" He yelled while collapsing on his knees, clutching his eyes as they immensely burned.

Not wanting the dangerous man to get back on his feet, Ben instantly rammed the lead Pipe on his jaw. Causing him to slam backwards on the ground. Ben was pretty surprised about the blue particles glowing around the pipe but didn't pay much heed to that for the time being. He needed to deal with the crazy man before he could regain his bearings back. Ben couldn't afford to get hit by that Jedi lightsaber thingy he had. As he continued to unleash a merciless beatdown upon the exorcist, several screens started popping up infront of his eyes.

 **A special skill had been created through a special act.**

 **By relentlessly beating enemy with a blunt object you've gained the passive ability [Basic Blunt Weapon Mastery]**

 **[Basic Blunt Weapons Mastery]: Lv 3 Next Lv 15/75. A skill that allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons.**

• **Passively increases the power of blunt weapons by 10%**

• **Passively increases the striking speed of blunt weapons by 5%**

• **Passively increases the critical hit rate of blunt weapons by 5%**

 **A special skill had been created through a special act.**

 **By managing to avoid enemy's attention for a certain amount of time, you have gained the passive ability. [Stealth]**

 **[Stealth]: Lvl 1, Next level 0/75. A skill that allows the user to avoid being detected by the enemy.**

 **18℅ bonus to concussive and crushing power of blunt weaponry**

 **21℅ bonus to cutting and severing power of blade weaponry**

 **50% increase to striking strength of weapons**

 **33% increase to weapon's critical rate.**

 **100℅ chance to deliver a critical hit**

 **Stealth will be rendered useless once being noticed by the enemy.**

 **A special skill had been created through special act.**

 **By hitting an enemy with a strong force, you have gained the active ability, [Power Strike]**

 **[Power Strike]: Lv 3, Next level 22/75. A skill that allows the user to hit an object or his enemy using his absolute strength.**

 **18℅ increase in critical chance**

 **150℅ increase in overall attack damage.**

"Well, This isn't bad. This isn't bad at all." Ben grinned. This just got a lot more easier now. However, while reading the messages Ben stopped bashing the exorcist's head. Deciding that perhaps he had dealt enough damage to him for now.

Big mistake!

The moment he backed away, he felt himself getting hit in the chest, sending him tumbling down the street. Ben groaned in pain, The exorcist jumped back on his feet. Appearing angrier than ever. Even though he was beaten to bloody pulp, he looked dangerous than ever. He bared his daggered like teeth as he glared with absolute fury at him. Bruises and scratches appeared on most parts of his body and parts of his clothes were missing due to Ben .

"You BASTARD! How dare you humiliate me like that? I WILL KILL YOU." He took a step forward and charged towards Ben. The brown haired teenager was starting to get worried, that one hit almost took 40 HP out of him. And something told him that wasn't even a proper attack. Grabbing onto his weapon tightly, Ben attempted to duck under a swipe and attack back. However he was caught off guard by the priest's over the top athletic abilities despite being a crappy condition and the fact that he was mostly blinded by the pepper spray. The priest slammed a knee over Ben's abdomen, causing him to roll over in pain. He didn't just stop at that, he grabbed Ben's head and smashed his skull against the wall. Ben cried in pain as he rolled over the ground. However at the same time, he also felt something strange. He was getting attacked with immense amount of power. Something ten times more than your average martial artist could muster. Yet no bones were broken. No bruises or scratches appeared on his body. Yes, he felt the burning sensation of pain from inside but it went away after a few moments. His health bar was going down and that was never a good thing.

But overall physically he didn't feel any major changes. Despite being beaten to death He wasn't worried or panicked in some sort. He was normal and very calm.

Like an actual game character.

But why?

Why did he feel this way?

He didn't have much time to ponder upon the facts as the priest grabbed his sword and dashed towards him. Forgetting about Kunou altogether. However it seemed that Kunou didn't forget about him. The kitsune angrily jumped on his back, tackling him over the floor. For the moment, it was strong enough drop the sword as he was slammed on the ground by the fox youkai. She then grabbed both of arms and held them backwards, pinning him down by placing one foot on his head and knee over his back. In normal situation her efforts would have been pointless but here situation was a bit different. The priest was already winded after taking some crucial beating from Ben. His body ached all over , his eyes still hurt. All the injuries he received earlier began to unleash their painful reminder that they were there. Even though the priest was more powerful and well trained than young fox princess, in this condition, he couldn't shrug her off right away. It was going to take a few moments before breaking her hold.

Ben jumped back on his feet. After taking a long breath, He swung the heavy lead Pipe in the air and charged towards the immobilized priest. This was his only chance, He needed to make the most of it.

" **Power Strike!"** Ben yelled as a cerulean aura engulfed the lead Pipe he was holding, making it much more faster and lighter than before. When it made contact with the priest's head, the very ground he was lying crumbled due to the powerful impact. Kunou quickly jumped of the exorcist's back. Ben lifted up the pipe once again, focusing his mind on the Tai Chi portion he was taught in the martial arts classes he used to take and a long summer vacation where he was introduced to the art of self defense taught to his ex green beret grandfather Maxwell Tennyson. He took out a long breath, relaxed his muscles . Grampa Max used to tell him it didn't matter how many times you can hit an enemy, but how much you can damage an enemy in one strike. To maximise the damage output one didn't need anger, he/she must needed to remain in a state of focus and serenity . Allowing his mind to be free from all thoughts, he focused on his target. Quite surprisingly he also felt something warm and extremely comfortable bubbling up inside of him. He really felt the pulse of energy pumping through his veins, crackling through him , circulating inside the every single nerve of his body like a shock.

He finally felt it for real! Not like all those times where his instructors used to talk focus on this Dantian and focus on that Dantian! BLAH BLAH! But this feeling, it was different, It was real. He actually felt something solid, this time around. He felt like he was part of something greater. Something bigger. Something powerful. It was a really intoxicating feeling. He felt so good that that he started fearing if he got addicted to this feeling and didn't attack the psychopath monster hunter slash exorcist guy in time, He would end up being dead, for good this time. He immediately shrugged of those negative thoughts though. Focusing on tapping into the thumb sized warmth within the center of his body

The volatile warm waves which originated inside his abdomen, started flooding throughout all of his limbs. Finally he had broken through his threshold of

The lead Pipe in his hand illuminated with a magnificent aura, nearly blinding the fox princess standing besides him. He felt a mass of pressure building up inside his body, eager to be unleashed upon the world, once he felt that it had become extremely difficult to hold back the energy anymore, he thrust forward with a wild swing. The attack kicked up dust and easily covered the ground it was meant to in the blink of an eye, before hitting the murderous maniacal swordsman with a loud and violent bang.

The moment Ben striked the exorcist, The lead Pipe in his hands exploded in the cloud of smoke. Kunou instantly took cover behind a sturdy looking trash bin as metallic pallets splintered across the area in high speeds. An invisible force slammed Ben head on, sending him careening through the air till he hit the ground with a dull thud.

 **Your HP has been reduced by 230**

Ben cursed under his breath as he was caught by the momentary sensation of pain. However no bones were broken and no blood was shed, Just like the last time around. He was about to reprimand himself for doing something so much dangerous and potentially ending his own life but before he could do that, he spared a look at the rogue exorcist . His eyeballs nearly threatened to fell down from their sockets the moment he saw the exorcist taking off in the air with a loud whooshing sound. A violent vortex of dust and debris forming on the spot where he hit him. The unconscious man rockrterred in the sky to God knows where with a gust of wind blasting from his side. A sonic boom ringing throughout the area as if the unconscious priest had jet engines attached behind his back.

Ben looked at the sky, feeling dumbstruck in awe as the priest disappeared over the tall skyscrapers. Looking down at his hands, Ben shook his head.

 _Holy crap! What the hell was that?_

Damn ! Only two points remained in his health bar. But that attack...it was really awesome. He couldn't complain about it. It was his own action which bought him closer to death but at the same time it was a price worth paying for that sheer display of awesomeness. The last time he felt so much great when he bitchslapped Vilgax across his face. He truly felt like a badass right now.

"Big brother! How did you... do... that?" Kunou asked, her voice filled with curiosity.

"I dunno. Perhaps I am not as much normal as I initially thought." Ben leaned on the nearby wall, desperately trying to catch his breath. Not only he felt like a he had been ran over by a speeding truck, he also felt completely drained. He sat down against the wall, the best way to recover from this exhaustion would be laying down for a while and relax for the moment.

"Are you alright Big brother? That evil swordsman didn't hurt you, did he?" Kunou rushed towards him, worried about her saviour's health and safety.

"Nah, I..am made of tougher stuff." Ben chuckled, ruffling the young fox girl's hair. The young kitsune blushed furiously, feeling herself purr at this motion. Nine fluffy tails wriggling behind her gave Kunou quite the kawaii look. The young Tennyson felt a grin forming on his face resembling that of a creepy old pervert. However, he quickly wiped that look away. Regaining his usual calm demeanor.

Damn! he shouldn't have seen that fluffy ecchie romantic anime about a guy and his extremely voluptuous samurai girlfriend/bodyguard with those cat like ears and tail.

Realizing her slip, Kunou looked away, still red in face. When she saw the evil smile on the blonde foreigner's face, she expected to face the opposite end of his deadly end. What she didn't expect was to this handsome teenager several years older than her , with a caring but at the same time also charming smile on his face jumping to her rescue and turning the tides against impossible odds.

What was this?

Why did she feel like this? It was like a butterfly flying inside her stomach

"Ah! You troublesome child. I finally found you." A soft but royal female voice called out. Ben looked up in confusion as he saw an extremely beautiful woman running towards them. Her attire was mostly similar to that of Kunou. However she appeared to be a lot more voluptuous and well endowed than the usual pretty women he encountered in real life. Or those pretty model types he used to see on television. Only ones who came dangerously close were Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima. Both of them being totally drop dead gorgeous. Apart from that she also had pointed canine ears similar to Kunou and nine fluffy tails burning with golden flames swirling around her.

"Kaa-san!" Kunou cried in embarrassment as the woman pulled one of her pointed ears, rather forcefully. Ben silently stood up from his position, because there was no MP left. He could no longer use **[Observe] .**

Though he could see the level flying on her head and that was damn scary.

 **Yasaka :- Lvl 230 [Empress of Kyoto]**

Ben broke out in cold sweat. Damn! That was way above even the end game boss level. How the hell he was supposed to stand up to someone like her? Feh, he was grateful that they were seemingly on the same side.

Atleast, he hoped so.

"Big brother was so awesome. He sent that meanie exorcist flying away in the space in just one hit." Kunou brightened while looking towards Ben. And before Ben could come up with a response she nearly tackled him on the ground with a bone crushing hug.

"Ufufu...A man stealing away my daughter from me at such young age!" She spoke out with a mischievous smile. Staying true to the moniker of playful kitsune.

Ben's face became green once he actually imagined. He was a hero for christ's sake. Not some lolicon!

"But an arrange marriage when Kunou reach adulthood might not be that bad!" She spoke with so much conviction in her tone that it nearly made Ben flinch.

"WHAT?" Kunou jumped back in panic

"Ha ha! I am just kidding. " Yasaka couldn't help but burst out in a fit of giggles. She continued with a respectful bow, unwittingly revealing some of her cleavage to Ben. Ben looked away in embarrassment, he didn't want to gawk at a woman's breasts like a creep, especially infront of her child, "May I have the honor to learn the name of my daughter's saviour?"

"Umm... please stand up Ma'am! I don't like seeing you bow like that. Besides any responsible citizen of the town should have done the same." Ben remarked with an unaltered smile, "And Kunou-chan helped too. She was really brave back then."

"I d-didn't do much big brother!" Kunou responded with a flushed face

"My grandfather used to say, Credit must be given where it's due. " Ben continued in a jovial tone, introducing himself with a two finger salute, " My name is Ben Tennyson. It was a pleasure meeting you."

"Well well Tennyson-san! I am Yasaka, Ruler of the Yokai capital." She smiled once again, adding with a hint of amusement in her voice, "Pardon me, Is this your first time dealing with supernatural world?"

"Well..." Ben scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "That's kinda complicated."

While the conversation was still going on, A few droplets of blood rolled over inside Ben's sleeves. It appeared that when he was hitting the exorcist non stop, some of the blood got stuck inside his shirt. The droplets of blood sparkled with a magnificent emerald lightning, the outside world didn't notice what was going on but the droplets of blood gathered around the top of Ben's left wrist , As if some sort of strong attraction force was pulling them closer.

With a faint glow, the green black hourglass symbol emerged from Ben's palms, taking the form of a tatoo which at first glance appeared to be permanently engraved on Ben's skin. Droplets of blood surrounded the symbol like a vacuum, dispersing inside the tatoo once they actually came close.

Feeling an itchy sensation Ben removed his sleeve, wondering what was going on. However before he could spare a single glance , the green black hourglass tatoo on his palms disappeared.

As if it was never there before.

 **As you can see Gamer ability isn't the only ability Ben has :)**

 **Ta da. Take care fellas, love ya all :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: It's not like I need to tell anyone this but since most people do it anyways, Let's try it for once. I don't own Ben 10, Korean Manhwa Gamer and Highschool DxD. They belong to their respective owners.

Ccccccccc...ccccccccccc...

 **You have slept in your bed, HP and MP are fully restored**

The moment Ben opened his eyes, he was greeted by the orange screen popping infront of his eyes. After what he had been through yesterday, He had no further doubts about his ability. Alongside a lot of stuff he didn't initially believe in. Such as supernatural beings. Yasaka, The nine tailed kitsune empress, who introduced herself as the leader of all Youkai living all over the world, confided in him that most mythological stories were somewhat real. Angels, Devils, Dragons, Youkai...all of them were pretty much real, carefully masking their existence in the human world by using various means. However, In very rare cases, A few gifted humans who can sense paranormal events and see the supernatural beings around themselves managed to make contact with them. Vice versa, There were certain paranormal beings who comfortably worked in human world and enjoyed conducting business deals with humans. Yasaka herself, admitted about owning multiple business corporations around half the globe. Ben told her that a few weeks ago he was attacked by a strange being and barely managed to survive through the encounter. In the show of righteous fury, She offered to hunt down that scoundrel and punish him/her in the worst way possible. But Ben politely denied, indicating that "someone" already dealt with that monster.

She had a lot of questions and so did he but they mutually decided to keep their conversation brief as both parties were in a hurry to leave. After giving Ben a heartfelt invitation visit their hometown so he could be properly rewarded for his heroic actions , Yasaka and Kunou left. Albeit not before engulfing him in a bone crushing hug.

 _"If any Supernatural beings try to bother you again, Tell them that you are under protection of Yasaka, The ruler of all Youkais and strongest of them all. Afterall this is the least I can do for my future son in law."_

 _"M-mother! Please stop it."_

 _"Ufufu... what's the point of being a trickster Kitsune if you don't get to tease people?"_

 _"Fine Yasaka-san! This joke is getting older now!"_

 _"Who told you I was kidding before?"_

Ben facepalmed as he remembered the scene from previous night. He still couldn't believe Yasaka could say something like that so much casually. Perhaps that was due to her nature as the playful kitsune. She was on somewhat end game boss level of an extremely long RPG and Ben was really grateful to have her as an ally rather than an enemy.

 **Quest [Mother Problem] had been successfully accomplished**

 **Side quest [Reach grocery store in time, Don't be late] had been successfully accomplished**

 **Quest [Friend of Supernatural] had been successfully accomplished**

 **You have managed to complete all the side quests and bonus events, well done**

 **Completion reward: 5000+400+ 100+ (50% bonus increase in overall exp) = 5500+275= 5775 exp, Increased closeness with mother, Increased closeness with Youkai, Increased closeness with [Occult Research Club], Increased closeness with [ Student Council]**

 **Congratulations! Your level has increased by 1.**

 **Congratulations! Your level has increased by 1.**

 **Congratulations! Your level has increased by 1.**

 **Bonus prize 25000 yen have been added to your [Inventory]**

 **The title [Hero] is acquired (+1 to all Stats per level, 35% increase in experience gained, 40% increase in damage dealt and 30% decrease in damage taken while fighting against evildoers)**

 **New skill (s) has been acquired due to receiving the title [Hero]**

 **[Tennyson Charisma] (passive) [Lvl 6, Exp:23.67%]**

 **Heroes are not choosen by the abilities they possess but rather they are decided by the path chosen by them while dealing with life and death situation. Thanks to dealing with a few such situations in your life and making crucial choices even at the risk of severe injuries or death, You have managed to acquire a certain portion of the Charisma your Omnitrix bearing counterparts possess.**

 **-Grants you the Charisma stat once this entry has been read**

 **-Automatically adds 5 charisma per level**

 **-As one who bears the [No Watch] and [Hero] title, you get a 50% experience boost with this skill. +70 increase in reputation while dealing with an ally, +200 increase in reputation while dealing with an ally of opposite sex (Warning: This attribute might result in you gaining affections of multiple women and eventually getting stuck in an inescapable Harem situation)**

 **[Pranic Healing (Active) Lv 1 Exp:0.0% MP 60 per minute]**

 **All pervasive organic energy has been known by many names. Chinese call it chi or Qi, the Polynesians mana, the Amerindians orenda, and the ancient Germans _od._** **In Hindu philosophy including yoga, Indian medicine, and martial arts, Prana (प्राण, _prāṇa_ ; the Sanskrit word for "life force" or "vital principle") comprises all cosmic energies that permeate the Universe on all levels. By embracing the life energy shining through your spirit, You can use that power to heal yourself and others**

 **Without [Touki] and [Senjutsu] ,HP 50 recovery , MP 15 recovery, Complete rejuvenation rate increases by 82%, Status effect removed, Illness removed**

 **With [Touki] and [Senjutsu] , Hp 80 recovery, MP 80 recovery, Complete rejuvenation rate increases by 220%, Status effect removed, Illness removed, Variable effects depending on the user's mastery of the skill**

 **Recovering lost limbs becomes available once the skill hits lvl 30**

A bright grin formed on Ben's lips. That wasn't bad. That wasn't bad at all. Last night, he took a huge risk by engaging in a deadly battle against that exorcist but it seemed like that paid off in the end. However, that only became possible due to absurd amount of luck, timely intervention from Kunou and that dangerous new attack he was somehow able to come up with. Every little thing was in his favor that night. Otherwise he would have been a goner the moment he entered in the battlefield. But the rewards he got from completing that dangerous quest, It was totally satisfying.

And the Charisma didn't seem like a bad thing to have, besides having that sort of attention won't be a bad thing. Ben Prime was pretty famous with ladies in his own dimension, well if it wasn't for the fact that he was a clueless and dense oaf who had no idea about how to deal with opposite gender...but that's the topic for another debate. Besides Ben didn't want to curse a version of...well... himself. That would sound really weird.

He rolled to a sitting position on the edge of his bed, allowing his feet to settle on the floor. Stretching his arms, he let out a yawn. Feeling somewhat more refreshed than usual. He wasn't a morning person and always felt irritated while waking up early in the morning. He was honestly surprised that he was not in his "punching the daylights out of sun" mode and felt a lot more refreshed with each passing moment. Perhaps that was due to his video game protagonist like physique as the characters were usually as good as new every time they stopped by an in. Does that mean even if he was in near death situation all it would take to heal him was a one night sleep?

That seemed like an awesome idea, even though Ben wasn't in mood to test that theory anytime in near future. He tapped on the accept button, making the orange pop up window vanish.

 **"Skills"** Ben whispered quietly. He smiled as another pop up screen appeared infront of him. There were also several small sized windows attached to them. Explaining briefly about the type of ability, level of the particular skill and what exactly that skill could do.

 **[Gamer's mind ] (Passive) [Lvl MAX] : Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Grants one an immunity to psychological status such as fear, panic, stress, depression and mind control**

 **[Gamer's Body] (Passive) [Lvl MAX]:**

 **Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. HP & MP are fully recovered after sleeping.**

 **[Advanced Self defense] (Passive) [Lvl MAX]**

 **In the harsh world everyone must learn hand to hand combat in order to defend themselves. The user has mastered an advanced form of martial arts that taught him not only how to kick, punch and block properly, It also allows him to take on multiple combatants at once and fight unarmed against armed enemies. The user has already mastered the skill and is well versed in most of stances, Katas , holds and as well as some nasty throws which can be induced in a regular hand to hand combat.**

 **Passively grants +10% STR**

 **Passively grants +10 % VIT**

 **Passively grants +10% DEX**

Ben blinked while reading that. That explained a lot about previous night's events. How he felt strangely calm about everything, him not panicking despite being in such dangerous situation. How he felt different everytime he got hurt, No visible injuries, no broken bones,. no blood... just a pang of pain, a little bit of jolt ... afterwards everything turned to normal. In usual video games a character can perform mostly everything in a pretty similar way whether their life bar has dropped to a single digit or its over a thousand. His body functions now pretty much worked that way.

That was both creepy and amusing. He then skipped through the skills he already knew about such as **[Power Strike]** and **[Blunt Weapon Mastery]**. He knew about them anyways. His eyes quickly darted towards the new entries in the skill window and he stopped scrolling.

 **[Physical Endurance] (Passive) [Lv 6, Exp:16.78%]**

 **The durability of body increases, lessening the damage inflicted on user. 12% decrease in damage taken by attacks. Effects are enhanced to a certain degree when [Life Energy Cultivation] and [Mana Reinforcement] is active**

 **Passively increases 7% of total VIT**

 **Additional 4% increase in VIT while being hit by an attack**

 **[Soul Crash] (Active) [Lvl 2, Exp:3.57%]**

 **A powerful attack which is entirely dependent on the ratio between user's HP and VIT. The more vitality user possess, The more deadly this attack can get. At this point, This attack can be only used five times in a day.**

 **Increases STR and striking power of the weapon by 600% while being active.**

 **Always delivers a critical hit**

 **Till the skill [Touki] is learned 40% of user's total HP is deducted every time the skill is used as a form of penalty**

 **[Mana Imbuement] (Passive)**

 **Mana, also known as Life Energy, is the name given to the life energy that is present in all living things throughout the entire universe. This skill allows the user to tap into his life force and use it for various means , most of them are yet to be discovered by the user. Due to the User being born of a special heritage , The ability allows user for a faster recovery of MP**

 **107% increased MP Regeneration rate**

 **10% increase in MP recovery rate.**

 **5% increase in total MP amount.**

 **5% increase in magic attack.**

 **5% increase in magic defense.**

 **30% increase in MP related skill effects.**

 **[Mana Reinforcement] (Active/Passive) [Lvl 1, Exp:2.7%, MP 20 per minute]**

 **Due to the user's knowledge of martial arts and him being born of a special heritage, he can now use Mana to reinforce his body , Protecting himself from taking damage. However, A deep bruise is possible and it won't stop the bones from breaking if hit by considerable amount of force but with enough mastery over this skill and a large pool of mana, User can make his skin as strong as iron while still retaining it's texture.**

 **Improves user's defense and reduces the damage taken, Increases depend on User's MP, Mastery over skill and total amount of VIT**

 **[Life Energy Cultivation] (Active/Passive) [Lvl 1, Exp:0.0%, MP 60 per minute]**

 **Life Energy Cultivation is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used in the belief that it promotes health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, Life Energy Cultivation is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance Chi, translated as "life energy". Traditionally, knowledge about Life Energy Cultivation was passed from adept master to student in elite unbroken lineages, typically with secretive and esoteric traditions of training and oral transmission, and with an emphasis on meditative practice by scholars and gymnastic or dynamic practice by the working masses.**

 **Many years ago, Humans were considered to be at the bottom of the food chain compared to other life forms such as Youkais , Angels, Demons , Dragons etc, Due to their weak bodies and mind. Malevolent supernatural beings treated as their playthings, Doing whatever they wish with them without fearing for any consequences. However, some chosen individuals with unyielding spirit and highly focused mind managed to harness the world's basic energy, Also referred as Ki. Purifying the energy and storing that inside the center of their bodies with training which was not only extremely rigorous , demanding and required a vast investment of time.**

 **With the development of such techniques human beings became able to overcome to limits of their weak fragile bodies and easily corruptible minds, gaining an immense amount of strength , powers and number of fantastic abilities:** **such powers included but not limited to superhuman strength, prowess and agility, as well as longevity , effectively immortality and/or long lasting youth, healing themselves and others even from a near death state, recovering lost limbs, manipulating the life cycle of vegetation around them...** **such magnificent abilities** **allowed them to not only push back against the supposedly superior supernatural forces, even gaining an upperhand in the fight of survival against them. Proving to the world of Gods, Angels Demons, and Youkai that they were no pushovers once they reached the true potential of their species by** **drawing upon the latent power within oneself.**

 **By learning that even though their bodies were perishable, their soul is eternal and isn't bound in the confinements of mortality and materialistic world, Not only that, It is unmeasurable in length and couldn't be properly understood by using physical terms. Through this understanding human beings eventually discovered immortality in the never ending cycle of life and death, By realizing the fact that, Nature's power flows through everything living and dead like a constant current, they learned to touch upon the great original power residing inside one's soul, in other words one's life force, they managed to draw strength from the world around them itself to survive and flourish with in the harsh reality. Unfortunately that knowledge and those arts eventually became lost to time, only remaining alive through selected practitioners , Making humans claim their previous position of being the playthings of Supernatural beings once again.**

 **Reinforces user's defense, making his body stronger by fortifying his bones and skin texture with his life force. It is said that true masters of this art can also survive and withstand environmental and atmospheric conditions too extreme for a not even normal human beings but supernatural creatures such as Vampires, Werewolves, Kitsunes etc.**

 **Increase in one's abilities depends on the amount of life force(MP) one possesses**

 **The amount of life force (MP) can be trained and increased through the usage of this skill.**

 **[Touki] becomes available once the skill hits Lvl 30**

 **[Senjutsu : Art of Communicating with Heaven and Earth] becomes available once the skill hits Lvl 50**

 **Increases VIT by 18%**

 **Increases DEX by 18%**

 **Increases INT by 12%**

 **Increases WIS by 12%**

 **Additional 30% increase in STR when active**

 **Additional 30% increase in DEX when active**

 **Additional 30% increase in VIT when active**

 **HP regeneration rate increases by 100% while the skill is actively used.**

 **Additional HP recovery per WIS and VIT if the skill being used during meditation.**

 **Additional MP recovery per INT and WIS if the skill being used during meditation.**

 **Additional Stamina recovery per DEX and VIT if the skill being used during meditation**

 **Increases VIT recovery rate by 12%**

 **Increases Stamina recovery rate by 12%**

 **Enhances the [Mana Reinforcement] when active to an unknown degree**

 **Enhances the [Advanced Self Defence] when active to an unknown degree**

 **Enhances the [Ki Sprint] when active to an unknown degree**

 **Enhances the [Pranic healing] when active to an unknown degree**

 **[Ki Sprint (Passive & Active) Lv 1 Exp:5.55% MP 18 per minute]**

 **Using Ki to strengthen your leg muscles now grant you enhanced movement speed**

 **Passively increases movement speed by 5 %**

 **Increases movement speed by 54% when active**

Ben took a long breath. Well that was weird. Special heritage? The word kept popping up over and over again. Where the hell did that come from? He never thought of himself as the mage type as while playing RPGs he usually chose Berserkers, Bladesman, Knight or Paladin. Then again, The skills he had right now consumed a hell lot of MP as well. But they were really useful and if it wasn't for him getting them in the first place, He wouldn't have survived the deadly encounter with the murderous psychopath priest. They provided him a window, an opportunity, No matter how small that window was, It marked the difference between his life and death.

 **[Soul Crash]** appeared to be a nasty surprise for both him and his enemies. The skill was too good to not use and it took nearly half of his life points away. But despite the drawbacks, The skill could prove to be a life saver in future.

He scratched his head in confusion. Skills...Skills. How the hell he was supposed to come up with powerful and awesome skills? Of course apart from the ones he already had. Those were really cool but most of them were sorta like buffs. Of course the skills he had with blunt weapons was fairly decent but that clearly wasn't enough. Ben needed something more. Something a bit more flashy and bad-ass. All those awesome stuff he saw in fantasy movies and animes, characters who could spit fire, move at the speed of lightning , Teleport from one place to another within a blink of any eye, spew out gigantic fire balls from their palms, The must use Mana to do all that stuff. Even the awesome martial artist type characters who could punch through metallic doors and leap over the multistory buildings, They harnessed Mana in certain form too, Alongside the usual shounen training stuff. Amazing stories like Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl ... He was really amazed at how the creators were able to come up with so many fantastic ideas. He knew that the authors tended to look for folklores and old fairy tales in order to get some sort of inspirations, but those old tales...they have been around for so long.

Now that he had been made aware of supernatural and unusual things going around in this world, his life was a bloody video game, he managed to level up three times in row by the way. He befriended a frigging nine tails fox. Not just any of them, She was the ruler of Youkai capital.

May be it was time for him to see what these stories actually were and where did those things originated in the first place? Who knows? It might give him some ideas about utilizing his mana better. Give him more creative ideas about coming up with new skills.

 **By thinking in a concise way, Your INT went up by 1**

" _Well, That sounds good."_ Ben let out a chuckle

Overall, he was happy. He wasn't doing bad per say and despite all the mishaps, he survived battling against the bloodthirsty psychotic stray exorcist, youkai hunter or whatever that thing was and lived to tell the tale. Taking him down quite successfully, minus a few hiccups along the ride.

That wasn't bad. That wasn't bad at all.

"Let's move to Status." Ben said as he closed the first screen. Another orange screen popped up in front of him.

 **Name: Ben Tennyson**

 **Class: Gamer**

 **Title : No Watch ( 25% increase in WIS and INT per level, 10% increase in CHA per level, 10% increase in LUK per level, 40% increase in experience gained up to Lvl 20), Hero (** **+1 to all Stats per level, 35% increase in experience gained, 40% increase in damage dealt and 30% decrease in damage taken while fighting against evildoers)**

 **Level: Lvl 15**

 **HP: 875**

 **MP: 800**

 **STR: 24+4.32+3= 31.32**

 **VIT: 29+5.22+3+2.62= 39.82**

 **DEX: 30+5.4+3=38.4**

 **INT: 46.82**

 **WIS: 52.7**

 **LUK: 25**

 **CHA : 20**

 **Status: ?(+5 VIT, +5 DEX, +10 INT, +10 WIS, +55% experience to [ Mana Imbuement] Skill, ? (+120 HP & +120 MP Per Level)**

 **Omnitrix, A powerful and highly sophisticated scientific wonder which allows its bearer to transform into any sapient alien species to ever exist , In each and every Universe existing in multiverse community the device is wielded by one and only Ben Tennyson. An ordinary ten years old human who eventually grew up to be a legendary Super hero. However in one and only this dimension Ben Tennyson didn't get to wield the Omnitrix. However that doesn't make him any less of a hero. He may look like an ordinary highschool student studying in prestigious Kuoh Academy, But make no mistake, He has a glorious and vulnerable destiny ahead of him. Someday he would change the world, For better or worse.**

 **Money: 25000 Yen (Added in Inventory)**

 **Points to spend : 15**

Ben shrugged. He now had 15 more attribute points to spend and he didn't know where to put them. Thankfully though, the titles did a decent job for him and he already got a well rounded increase in terms of stats. However this was just the beginning and something told him , similar to every other video games he used to play with each level it was going to get harder to level up. Not to forget the Quests and dealing with enemies was going to become more difficult.

Many things were in his favor last night , perhaps he won't have those advantages next time he find himself in such situation. He can't rely on the support from lady luck forever.

He needed to be prepared.

He needed to become stronger , In order to survive the dangerous quests and deadly enemies ahead of him.

He needed to become more powerful if he ever wanted to live up to the title of hero

Determined to find ways to improve and someday achieve greatness in his life, Ben jumped back on his feet and started making his way towards the washroom.

...ccccccccc...ccccccccc...

"Hey Mom!" Ben said. Instantly joining his mother in the kitchen after freshening up. It seemed that his dad left for office early today. Usually, at this time, he would be waiting for school bus at the nearby bus stop. However, the Kuoh academy was closed due to some administrative reasons. He heard from the rumor mill that someone very influential was found dead in the Kuoh campus , Her name was Cleria or something like that and she was a student in Kuoh University . Which also happened to be a part of Kuoh campus alongside the highschool. Anyways, school was about to start in a few days and he still needed to finish his homework alongside a physics report.

Damn! This wasn't going to be easy.

Ben thought that first things first, He needed to deal with all the classwork first so he can find some precious time to explore his Gamer ability and level up some useful skills or even create some new badass ones. However before he could get to that, there were a few things which were still bugging him. He knew he couldn't talk to his parents about his strange ability without coming off as a lunatic but he hoped that talking with his mother might help in putting those issues at rest and help him in thinking more clearly about what to do next.

"Hmm...?" Sandra Tennyson, his nagging, over protective but at the same time, really affectionate mother turned towards him slightly, blinking in amusement as she made the sound in the back of her throat, "Good morning sweetie, Do you need anything?"

"I,... uh.." Ben scratched his cheek as he frowned slightly, still unsure about how exactly he could explain everything to his mother without coming off as a nutjob. He didn't want his mom to think he was doing drugs or something like that which she probably would if he told her something crazy like, him meeting aliens, Fighting against sword wielding killers to save little fox girls and last but not the least, his entire life now morphing into a sort of video game.

"Well I guess I was really muddled about this certain situation I was dealing with, It's not much but after giving it some thought... I figured you would have an idea or two about how to deal with certain things?"

"You didn't get any one pregnant, did you? I am not ready to become a grandmother yet." Sandra continued with a teasing grin

"Mom, I didn't do anything like that." Ben let out a groan

"Oh, do you want to ask a girl out?"

"No."

"Do you want to ask a boy out?"

"MOM!

"Don't worry Ben. Your parents will love you no matter what your sexual preferences are." Sandra responded with such intensity that made Ben wonder whether she was just kidding or actually being serious.

"I am not coming out of closet Mom!" Ben's eyebrows twitched in irritation, He really wanted to get to the topic.

"Oh, I was just confused. You don't have a girlfriend despite being in a highschool with gender disparity on extreme level." Sandra spoke out with an amused grin

"It's because 70% of the female population is pining after a single guy , many thinks every male in this academy is not worth their time, some I guess play for the same team." Ben concluded with a sigh

"Well, don't worry son. If nothing works out , we can always arrange your marriage with a distance relative. Father in Law has Japanese roots afterall." Sandra giggled.

"Glad to see that you are so much concerned about me." Ben remarked dryly. His mother affectionately ruffed his unruly brown hair with a warm smile

"Ah! Why are you making such sour face? If you can't handle some playful jibe from your own mother, how are you going to survive in the real world?"

"Mom, what if our life was like an RPG? A video game where we have to decide between the usual stats: Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Luck, Charisma, Intelligence and Wisdom. Is it better to be Intelligent and wise or you should be also strong, fast, tough, Charismatic and lucky?" Ben asked in serious, jumping straight in the topic.

Sandra seemed to ponder for a moment.

"Well it's a tough call. It's ideal to be smarter, wise and lucky. At the same time it's also essential for one to have a healthy and stronger body. Perfection of the body shall eventually lead to the perfection of the mind and soul. Also it's great to be charismatic, popular and the ability to leave an impact on people's mind wherever you go. Some people may even sell their souls to have that sort of influence over others" Sandra responded thoughtfully, " However that is just wishful thinking , you can't have everything in your life . No one can be that much blessed, Right? If I had to say which was most important…I suppose that would be Intelligence and wisdom."

"Why?" Ben asked

"Well, think of it as something like this. Intelligence is the power and Wisdom is the awareness of how to use it. Wisdom is the ability to make the right choice at the right time. Intelligence can give you numerous ideas, more choices to deal with but Wisdom is going to help you with which path you should choose and what would be the long lasting effects of that particular decision in the future . For example think of your mind as a glass, Intelligence is the method you can apply if you want to increase the size of the glass and wisdom is what you can refer as filling the glass with water. Of course that doesn't mean you can completely rule out the importance of Intelligence in your life. It is very important too. However, Intelligence is something you can gain with efforts. Yes, The amount of efforts a person has to put depends on myriad of factors . But through considerable amount of efforts a person can learn a number of things, memorise a huge amount of information. But that doesn't mean anything when you don't have the ability to make right decisions based on the information and knowledge you possess. Being smart is a great thing but it's not always going to result in your happiness. If that was true, many smart people wouldn't have led such miserable lives in past. "

Ben nodded at her seriously

"Then it would be better for me to become wise then anything else." Ben asked once again, just to double check.

"Intelligent people have the ability to learn and reason, They can retain a lot of information and make use of it while dealing with problems of their lives. While wise people understands the world and people around them a lot better and they have the most uncommon thing in the world, common sense. It's no wonder they can make use of their knowledge in a much efficient and smart manner. But even wise man can't do much if they possess little to no knowledge about the problem they are dealing with." She responded with a sagely sime

"So I should thrive to be both Intelligent and Wise?" Ben raised an eyebrow in confusion, He added with a hint of uncertainty in his voice "Is it possible for me to do so?"

"You are still very young Ben." Sandra ruffed her son's hair with a fond smile, " You can be anything you want in the future. As long as you are willing to put right efforts in the right direction."

 **By listening to your mother's sagely advice, your WIS went up by one.**

"Thanks Mom!" Ben gave an earnest smile in return, " I promise to work hard and become someone awesome and mind blowing in the future. Uh...why don't you let me handle the dishes? "

"I'll leave it to you then." Sandra said, patting his cheek as she turned away. Ben just sort of ...stared at the orange pop up box which appeared in front of him and then took a long breath, narrowing down his eyes in anticipation.

So even stuff like this…

 **Quest Alert**

 **Helpful Son**

 **Help your mother in the mundane task of washing the Dishes and prove that you are not a lazy bum who do nothing but watching sumo slammer and playing video games whenever you are at home.**

 **Completion reward: 100 Exp, 50 Yen**

 **Completion Failure: Decrease of Mother's faith in you, Disappointed parents, 20% decrease in exp and rewards while taking Quests from family.**

Ben shrugged, ofcourse something like that was about to happen. His life worked like a video game now, after all. Immediately he pressed Y on the screen floating in front of him, making it disappear. Regaining his composure in a moment, he turned towards the sink , starting to wash them one by one. Even though the task seemed mundane, He was going to get some experience out of it. Besides the drawbacks from refusing the task seemed like a little bit too much for him to ignore.

 **A special skill had been created through a special act**

 **[Dish Washing (Passive) Lv 1 Exp: 5.5%]**

 **Through continuous efforts, A passive ability to wash dishes [Dish Washing] has been created. With more mastery you can clear any dirty spots.**

 **5% increase in dish washing speed.**

Ben instantly closed the pop up screen while absentmindedly cleaning the dishes, He wasn't interested in how well he could perform household chores. However that solidified his belief that he could create skills out of the blue. Yeah, there were certain limitations and he couldn't teleport or shoot fireballs from his fingertips. But he could still do some pretty amazing stuff. From the first glance, It seemed that he can become stronger every time he leveled up. He had Titles which ensured a steady increase in his Stats and there were skills which provided him with rather useful buffs and increases. And just like the RPG games, He needed to work separately on his skills in order to improve upon them. Both of them were not entirely connected with each other but his instincts told him that ignoring one in the favor of other was going to end up as a huge disaster for him.

Having right amount of skills at adequate level was crucial in video games when you were up against significantly high level bosses and so was having enough attribute points stacked in your character sheet, Those things made huge impacts in the Late game dungeons which were usually tough as hell.

First of all, The **[** **Life Energy Cultivation]** was the most broken buff and healing skill he had ever stumbled upon. He wished such skills existed in the RPGs he used to play, would have saved him a lot of time and efforts, grinding was a really huge headache. For the video game which was his life , This skill was a boon from gods. The **[** **Mana Imbuement]** was a necessary tool he needed in order to utilize **[Life Energy Cultivation], [Mana Reinforcement], [ Ki Sprint]** and a few others which could apparently play a major role in increasing his livability in crazy situations. He didn't know what he was going to end up into next.

Then his minds wandered off to what his mom recently told him, He had time to become whoever he wanted to in this world. As long as he was willing to work for it. He could become powerful, agile , resolute and pretty much everything, The only thing he needed to do was to put all his efforts in the right directions. He already put a lot of points in his physical stats so for now, It didn't really look like he needed to increase them even more. Thinking back to what his mom had said, If he was smart and wise, he could come up with better means to increase his other stats, understand his skills better, make more out of his Gamer ability overall or even deal with issues which were rather trickier to handle with sheer muscle power alone. Besides he already had a skill which provided a certain amount of increase in all of his stats, Titles which allowed a more balanced addition in his character sheet, every time he leveled up. Then again should he really use those points right now ? His Stats were looking already better with all the additional buffs and bonus points added through his titles. Saving them for the time of an emergency seemed like a much better choice , Just like his fight against the crazy huge sword wielding killer exorcist.

But it was really tempting to just spend all those points and see the changes they might bring out in him. He could already feel the difference from the additions in his stats. That was amazing. He had fifteen more attribute points to allocate and depending on where he put it, he could make himself stronger, faster, tougher, luckier, charismatic... more than he already was. Given the terrifying potential hidden behind these small numbers on his well... character sheet...as you can refer to his status, He could do anything he wanted with them. All he needed to do was to make a choice. A choice about what sort of power, what sort of strength he wanted to acquire. However he also knew he could increase all of his stats just by working on **[Life Energy Cultivation]** but probably considering the huge amount of MP that skill required, It wasn't going to be that easy. Though he couldn't tell till he tried working on that though.

Then again, having fifteen unused points, It was really tempting. Especially when he knew what these numbers could do for him

Decisions...Decisions...this was becoming harder and harder with each passing moment.

May be he shouldn't be too hard on himself, play it cool and let the nature take its course. He had never been one to plan things thousand steps ahead. He usually made decisions on the fly, according to the situations he found himself into and that usually worked out for him.

Besides, He was called Hero for a reason after all. He was going to do just fine

 **This is it. A bit different from the previous one, though the tattoo on Ben's wrist will make its presence known sooner or later :)**


	5. Chapter 5

The moment Ben started working on his class work and physics report, he became instantly aware of the increase in his mental capabilities. Even though he was yet to use the attribute points he got from levelling up, The titles and additional perks already added a decent amount of points on his character sheet . At first he didn't feel any changes, However gradually he started realizing how making calculations became a lot more easier. His memory seemed to have gotten a lot better. He could recall all those lectures he attended at the academy as if he was seeing them in high definition. It seemed like he now had developed some sort of eidetic memory but that was kinda hard to tell. Even when he didn't has all the video game like abilities, memorizing and cramming were his strongest forte. He still needed to look up a few things in textbooks and read about the concepts he didn't know, But he felt like he could process the information in a lot more efficient way.

Of course that didn't make his home work, physics report and additional assignment from the sadistic chemistry teacher any more enjoyable. However he took satisfaction in the fact that his Intelligence was increased by one once he survived the horrors of studying constantly for four and half hours.

That was surely a terrifying idea. If he could increase his mental states such as **INT** and **WIS** by doing stuff like listening to a good advice, thinking intuitively and doing homework. Did that mean he could also increase his physical attributes by following the similar route? So If studying increased his **INT** , His **STR** , **VIT** and **DEX** should be increased by working out? That was something he definitely needed to experiment with. Also he was pretty eager to figure out exactly how much time and efforts he should put in order for his stats to increase. He was still ridiculously low leveled compared to the crazy priest he fought. Granted he had Yasaka's reassurance and she was pretty damn powerful. But could he really rely on her to bail him out from every situations? Afterall being the ruler of Kyoto and leader of all Youkais , She must be pretty busy doing her own stuff. So he still needed to become more powerful on his own , in order to ensure his survival incase he found himself dealing with situation like that , again. And now that he had inherited some of his Omnitrix bearing counterpart's attributes, he was pretty sure , sooner or later he was going to end up facing a life threatening situations. His gut feeling told him that and he needed no danger sense to prove that sentiment.

Coming back to his stats, If this worked like MMORPGs, He played them quite a lot too... If his memory served him right, He could increase his stats by training in accordance with what he wanted to improve. At initial stages it is easy to get points from the process but as you keep progressing, such things become more and more difficult. You need to start putting up ten or hundreds of time more efforts in order to get the same result you got way earlier in the game with much less efforts and difficulties. There was a cap about those things. Afterwards the only thing which could help you in moving forward was tons of real life money to buy premium items. Pure grinding and patience never worked that much against the bloody paywall. But this wasn't a game. This was his real life. He didn't know exactly what principles of video games and which video games in particular the crazy system was going to follow but if it was possible for him to increase his stats without levelling up, allocating himself more points than he was allowed to per level, than he was willing to go through the extra mile.

Dropping on the ground, he immediately started with the push ups. And it was pretty obvious that his physical attributes had been increased. He had to allocate twelve points each to **STR, VIT and DEX** in order to wield that heavy pipe, which he used to beat the crap out of the rouge exorcist. That was definitely a major increase and no wonder, even after doing fifty push ups, he was yet to break a sweat. Not even feeling a tid bit tired. Even during the times when he did get tired, No matter how much he pushed himself, he would easily recover after meditating for twelve to fifteen minutes using **[Life Energy Cultivation]** . Even though the skill usually consumed a lot of MP, He also gained a certain amount while using the skill during meditation. The amount recovered was clearly not as much as the amount lost but considering all things said and done, he could easily regain 25-30% amount of MP if his natural MP regeneration rate was included in the calculation.

In rare occasions when he felt really bored from sitting still in a place and doing nothing but focusing on his heartbeats, He could just rest normally, doing stuff like watching television, reading mangas or playing video games, all he needed to was to not work out for twenty five minutes and with in no time he was completely rejuvenated. Ready for the next round. Afterwards, He continued the exercise, starting another set of push ups. It seemed like his stamina was way better than it used to be. He still had his limits and he could still feel fatigue from working out but those limits were significantly higher than they used to be. The process continued for half and hour and just the moment Ben flipped over the ground to shift over to doing sit ups, A blue window immediately flashed in front of his eyes...

 **Congratulations! Due to your continuous efforts, STR goes up by 1**

Ben smiled at the revelation, he could work with this. He knew that with each point he received, he needed to work more harder to get another one. He would have to put a bit more efforts in order to get the next increase in **STR** . At the same his strength was lower than his other two physical stats. Thus it was easier to improve in comparison to those two. Besides because of higher **DEX** and **VIT,** he had acquired a great amount of stamina, which meant he could train a lot longer and recover a lot faster. He was already done with the studies, His mother was out on her nursing job at the city hospital and as far as he could tell, she was going to do double shift today. His mother always worked hard in order to provide for the family. His father was away on the Grandsmith business. He worked as an assistant to the Chief Marketing Officer of Grandsmith Hotels & Resorts, Forcing him to travel a lot. His dad didn't like the job very much but with his educational qualifications he didn't have much choice. Besides, He only got the job because Donovan Grandsmith, Owner of multi million dollar highly successful Grandsmith Industries was a childhood friend of Maxwell Tennyson. He knew it was better than working at a plant in the small town Bellwood. The fact that his brother Frank Tennyson was a rich and successful lawyer didn't help much. Sometimes, Ben felt that his father only took the job because he wanted to leave their home at any cost.

Anyways that didn't matter, In short he had the entire house to himself and no one was going to bother him. He couldn't work on his active skills apart from **[Dish Washing]** and **[Observe].** They tended to be rather destructive and it wasn't possible for him to practice them at home. He needed to find an isolated place if he wanted to properly work on them. He continued on with the sit ups. Unfortunately even after completing four sets of fifty, His STR didn't budge. He let out a sigh, guess it was nearly impossible to get infinite points this way.

Immediately he kicked himself in an upside down position. Extending his arms and legs he put his body in a straight line. He slowly lowered himself to the ground. Inhaling in a slow pace his head touched the ground. He pushed himself back up slowly, Exhaling as his elbows were nearly locked. The process seemed to be going on for a while. Probably for around twenty minutes. After a while Ben felt the tension in his muscles, His hands started shaking and the pain became a bit more noticeable, Despite the **[Gamer's Body]** ability. He landed on his feet with a handstand. He raised his hands high into the air and listened to his back pop and crack in a way that would make most people cringe. That did hurt though, a bit more than he initially expected. But considering that no messages flashed in front of him, He assumed that he had gotten tougher and/ or the skills [Mana Reinforcement] and [Physical Endurance] were working well enough for him to not be affected by such little amount of damage.

Taking out a long breath, Ben stretched his arms with a yawn and opened the cupboard of his drawer. He reached for his weighted rope which he bought from the nearly shop just in the morning and started performing cross-fit double unders. After he had skipped roped for non stop twenty minutes or a bit more, a blue glowing window popped up in front of him once again. Indicating that at least some good did come out from working out like there was no tomorrow.

 **Repeated struggles have caused your VIT to increase by 1**

 **Continuous efforts have caused your DEX to increase by 1**

"Well, This plan may bear fruits in the long run, afterall." Ben said to no one in particular, resisting the urge to pump his fists in the air but did it anyways once he realized that no one was watching him anyways. The very fact that he had the direct ability to make himself smart, strong, fast, durable, lucky, charismatic...whatever he wanted to be, just by pressing a button on the screens floating in front of him was exhilarating and at the same time scary good. The opportunity he got was so much fantastic that he was frightened, afraid that he would end up making silly mistakes and mess up everything. His every action, every choice. He had stats and skills. Just like a real video game character, There were actual values, numbers which he could see changing, he could increase them through his efforts. Every time he put even a single point in those stats, he saw drastic improvements in himself. That was awesome beyond his imagination.

The description in his stats was true after all, He really had a glorious and vulnerable destiny ahead of him.

"Watch me, Mom and Dad, I am going to become someone great in the future." He smiled to himself as he opened his school bag and proceeded to start on the path of greatness by dropping on his bed and opening the third chapter of his Inorganic chemistry textbook.

...xxxxxxx...Xxxxxxx...

Next day, As usual, Ben woke up without the alarm clock buzzing. Even though he only had little bit over three hours of sleep previous day. As it turned out, His biological clock has been acting really weird ever since he got his video game like abilities. Apparently it seemed like he could sleep for anywhere from fifteen minutes to six hours and get the same results. No puffy red eyes , No headaches, No dark circles or bags under his eyes and not even an ounce of drowsiness in his body. Last night he only slept for an hour and the day before, he only stopped to take a nap for two hours. Towards his utmost horror and greatest relief, that didn't affect his overall effectiveness at all. Last week, somewhere around beginning of the week, he pulled an all nighter watching action movies and playing previous series games of God Of War (cause the new one was coming after a very long time and he wanted to relive all those old memories a bit before buying that one, Kratos was one of his favorites afterall) he fell asleep during most of his classes and labs. Hack he was completely on autopilot. He didn't even recall whether he brushed his teeth or ate his breakfast or not. He probably sleepwalked his entire way to Kuoh Academy. He didn't know how and why he managed to survive without getting a detention slip. May be it was just dumb luck or sheer ignorance from student council and the facilities. Anyways, It wasn't like he was complaining.

Not getting punishment was million times better than anything else. Besides he recently read an article in newspapers that not getting seven or eight hours of sleep a night won't kill you. Anything between five to six hours worked just fine. It was like a recent research from Kuoh University showed, as long as your body gets some high quality rest, enough to full fill your physical needs. You are most likely to do just fine. Besides having abilities like Life Energy Cultivation and Pranic Healing would easily remove any side effects he might be getting from a little bit of short sleeping.

Ben groaned in frustration. This was both a curse and blessing at the same time. He hoped to savor the feeling of sleeping in for seven hours but instead he found himself completely refreshed and ready to roll with less then four hours of sleep. It seemed that having these video game abilities made it harder for him to enjoy taking long peaceful naps on his comfortable bed . He looked at the nearby clock. It was 5 am in the morning. Way too early for his liking. Unfortunately, He really had no other choice but to wake up. He was already awake and as he was completely refreshed, it was next to impossible for him to fall asleep again. Without wasting any further moment, he went inside his bathroom and began his usual morning rituals by brushing his teeth.

After taking a quick shower, he threw out his uniform on the bed and went on to prepare his school bag according to the schedule. Once he was done, he descended from his room downstairs, hoping that his parents won't die from heart attack after seeing him waking up this early. She was usually up very early, somewhere around six but today he woke up earlier. Way too earlier. He picked up a large bunch of fifty something lifestyle magazines lying on the floor. His mom was an avid reader and loved to read about all sorts of stuff. This magazines belonged to a popular publication house in Japan and the topics they mainly covered were health and fitness, tourism, leisure, fashion, gossips, decorating and even culture. No wonder it was pretty popular amongst women of all ages. He clearly remembered seeing a bunch of copies in the bags of several of his classmates and also heard them discussing about certain articles.

These turned out to be the older editions. Some were even dated before 2014. Ben immediately figured out this was his mother's doing. She was probably going to throw all of them out in the dustbin, that's why she tied all of them in a bundle. However, she overestimated her stamina a bit, got too tired thanks to working on a double shift and slept right away once she came back home. She was really particular about stuff like that most of the times but she wasn't a machine and unlike him she didn't have a magical meditation skill which allowed someone to recover in an instant. Well, as he was up early, might as well do something useful and take out the trash. The moment he picked up the the bundle of magazines from the ground...

PING

A blue window popped up in front of him.

 **You have obtained multiple skill books, Would you like to learn those skills?**

 **The art of mixing several items to create food which provides you with substance and life , the life skill [Cooking] is available for learning**

 **The modified art of ancient swordsmanship, an activity that combines martial arts practices and values with strenuous sport-like physical activity using bamboo swords and protective armor, A** **modern japanese martial arts, [Kendo] is available for learning**

 **Every man should know how to fix things they use in their day to day life, Knowing how to use the basic tools can do wonders to your life, the life skill [Family Handyman] is available for learning**

 **Humanity has advanced their civilizations through inventing new things, A skill to create something [Craft] is available for learning**

 **You have no idea the magic applying a bit of pressure and work on certain points of body can do, the life skill [Massage] is available for learning**

 **Practicing a regular, mindful breathing exercise can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders, Not only that it is also a useful tool for achieving a relaxed and clear state of mind, The life skill [ Breathing Exercise: Three to try] is available for learning**

Ben's eyes widened in amusement. God! his ability was really cheap. So he could now learn things from touching certain books, Well that was interesting. It wasn't that much surprising though. His life was a video game now and in certain RPGs it was possible to learn skills from various tomes you may stumble upon throughout the course of your adventure. Anyways, as far as real life was concerned, this was a new thing. Granted he did learn a few skills which were bestowed upon him by the system but he never used a skill book before. To be honest, He found that prospect a bit exciting. Without wasting a moment, he quickly started pressing Y numerous times on the blue screen that appeared in front of him. The entire bundle in his hands, all fourty magazines, started glowing with a golden aura before blistering apart in a shower of petals, vanishing into thin air as if they never existed before. Just like, he felt previous time during learning new skills, he felt his brain flowing with the knowledge about certain subjects he never heard before in the past.

Ben let out a slow breath, only if he could do this with his textbooks. That would have been a huge blessing. Before he could ponder upon this though for a while, an orange screen flashed in front of his eyes with a loud PING.

 **Through specials actions, A new quest has been created**

 **There is no "Me" in the family**

 **Prepare breakfast for yourself and your family**

 **Rewards: A nice meal, 600 Exp, 6500 Yen, Increased closeness with your family ,?,?**

 **Failure: 80 Exp, 600 Yen, Increase reputation with your family**

 **You cannot deny this quest.**

Ben grumbled to himself, another one of the quests he must accomplish in order to advance. At least this wasn't like the last time where he ended up facing against that sword wielding psycho. Though the question marks worried him a bit. He really hoped this won't lead him in some really dangerous bonus event like it did last time and put him into a supposedly inescapable life threatening situation. He was a bit reluctant at whether he should try dodging this quest or not. Then again system was going to screw up with him either way. Taking a long breath, He pressed Y on the screen and entered inside the kitchen.

Ben glanced at the electric cooker and the kitchen platform. He didn't have a single idea about what he was going to make. His cooking skills started from brewing his own coffee, making his toast, frying an omelette in very rare cases and ended with two minute instant soup/noodles/ramen. He decided to settle with something simple like Scrambled eggs, A simple suimono (Clear soup) something which he had seen being prepared by his own mother at least over ten thousand times and decided for a little bit more ambitious approach at the last, now that he had Cooking listed as one of his actual skills, A side dish of Tamagoyaki. He could easily memorize all the ingredients as if he was reading them out from a recipe book. He could also perfectly recall how to cook them, how much spices he needed to add and the exact amount of time needed to prepare those dishes. All that was left for him to do was to apply his knowledge into practise. Hell yeah! The skill book absorption ability was really amazing

As Ben gathered the various ingredients from inside the refrigerator and various drawers and started the preparation of the meal, He stared at the wall clock in front of him with fascination. Even though it had been several minutes since he head started , Time was standing still. Refusing to advance forward. At first he thought that was just his imagination and probably, the clock had stopped working or ran out of battery. However, that wasn't the case. All clocks in his house showed the same results. He even checked the time in his smartphone, towards his utmost surprise that too seemed frozen on the very point of time when he had accepted the quest.

Holy crap! That was freaking awesome.

Gaming ability was capable enough of manipulating time itself. Damn! That was awesome on many levels. It was like that Hyperbolic Time Chamber thing from Dragon Ball Z. Imagine the hours he could use to practise his stats and skills. He could become all powerful if it was possible for him to figure out how to pause the world. Who knows? May be some day he will be able to do crazy stuff like that. He he, even Paradox himself would be jealous of his nearly god like Gamer abilities.

Eventually the sound of electric cooker managed break him away from the world of daydreams.

Ben was expecting a nice meal with mouth watering smell and delicious tastes but all he managed to prepare was a rather pitiful looking _thing_ which looked and smelled like a rat and fish having a one night stand on the bed of rotten eggs, committing suicide the next day and their bodies were covered with twenty year old, moldy, incredibly stinky cheese. Even looking at that abomination was enough for someone to vomit themselves to their death and it's smell...well we better not go there

 **Danger Sense has increased by one**

Ben gritted his teeth in frustration and anger but decided to use Observe on the dish of disaster anyways. Curious to see why exactly his sense of danger was making such fuss over a stupid dish.

The system quickly informed him why and the administrator really didn't know how to mince words

 **An extremely badly cooked food prepared by an equally disastrous chef, It is every food enthusiast's nightmare . It doesn't matter whether that is burnt or not, even the most vile creatures of hell would rather starve themselves to death than consuming this hullabaloo. 2000% chances of inflict Poisoning, Diarrhea, Stun and even momentary paralysis. -30 HP and -40 MP**

" _Fine, I screwed up you bastard. No need to make a song and dance about it. "_ Ben grumbled slightly, The game was really set to mock him at every turn today.

 **Quest FAILED**

 **You have received 80 Exp, 60 Yen and your reputation with Tennyson Household increases by 3**

 **[Cooking] has gone up by level 1**

 **Do you wish to retry the quest? (15 tries remaining)**

 **Y/N**

A wolfish smirk appeared on Ben's face. Well, that wasn't bad. He did receive some experience and two of his skills leveled up by 1. Gears in his mind immediately started rolling. So he could repeat this quest for fifteen times till he got it right. Hmm...that could be very useful. He cracked his knuckles, It was about time to exploit the system to it's fullest

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Quest FAILED**

 **Danger sense has leveled up by 1**

 **Danger sense has leveled up by 1**

 **Danger sense has leveled up by 1**

 **Cooking has leveled up by 1**

 **Cooking has leveled up by 1**

 **Cooking has leveled up by 1**

 **Cooking has leveled up by 1**

 **Cooking has leveled up by 1**

It was hard to keep track of time as time wasn't exactly moving forward. However, if one could assume intentionally screwing up so many dishes must have taken a couple of hours. Though Ben wasn't able to make far enough to get his eleventh attempt at making food. As his Cooking leveled up, his preparations started becoming more and more refined and eventually he reached a point where it was nearly impossible for him to fail. Letting out a sigh, he gave in and finally finished preparing breakfast.

 **Quest Accomplished**

 **There is no "Me" in the family**

 **Gained 600 Exp, A Well prepared meal, Royal Meal, Experience Pie, Increased closeness with your parents, Buff Status: Heavenly Apprentice of Kitchen! Active for three hour**

 **Note: The Quest is available three times in a week and every time the user learns a new** **recipe**

 **Congratulations! You can now receive Cooking quests from your household.**

 _"That's unusual!"_ Ben blinked in confusion. He had a good idea what Experience Pie meant, sometimes in RPGs you can get items which gives you a certain amount of additional Exp points once you consume them. In general cases though, they were included in premium items and you needed to spend some real money to get your hands on them. The badly cooked food disappeared within his sights only to reappear inside his inventory. Only thing remaining in front of him was a nicely prepared family sized meal, alongside two additional dishes.

"Observe!" Ben whispered, glancing at the family sized meal first, then shifting towards the other two

 **A Well prepared meal**

 **A nicely cooked traditional breakfast of japanese origin, delicious and filled with most necessary nutrients . Restores 45% of total HP and MP**

 **Royal Meal**

 **The breakfast of emperors, prepared with such dedication, passion, patience and finesse that it now** **possesses supernatural qualities, 100% HP and MP Restored, 4x to all stats for two hours, 200% increase in Exp gained**

 **Experience Pie**

 **A pie made from rich ingredients filled with various magical properties, Additional 3300 Exp points awarded if consumed before taking a quest.**

Ben grinned from ear to ear. He had received his first buff food (The items in games which gives you certain special advantages or increases once you consume them), May be the administrator was not as bad as he initially thought. This Royal meal was surely something he was going to save for life threatening situations. This could definitely prove to be his trump card in long run if he got this every time he took a cooking quest. Right now he seemed too good to be true but he either needed to wait till two more days or learn a new recipe in order to receive the quest again. Anyways, he will just read a new recipe and give it a try tomorrow. He would be a fool if he let such opportunity pass by.

Shoving both of the buff foods in the inventory, He quickly ate his fill for the morning, packed a bit in his lunch box. Now that he thought about it, the food was really tasty , he might not be need to spend money in cafetaria today. He simultaneously looked at his smartphone and the wall clock, Time had started moving forward once again. He still had one and half hour left to get to school and he had no idea how to utilize this time.

"My, My Benjy, Did you really made all these stuff?" A voice said from behind. Ben quickly turned around, only to see his father approaching towards the kitchen, staring at the nice looking meal which gave out a really pleasant smell. He quickly took out a pair of chopsticks and started reciting a small prayer. Ben blinked in confusion. His dad must be really hungry. Then again before he got his Gamer abilities, he was like that in the morning too. Attacking the food on table as if there wasn't going to be any tomorrow.

"Well, Dad, I kinda woke up early today and had a lot of free time on my hand before getting to school. So for a change I decided to make you guys some breakfast." Ben grinned rubbing the back of his head sheepishly

"Damn! This is really good Son. I didn't know you could cook." Carl stated bluntly while savouring a mouthful of food

"Ah...They have been teaching us at the Kuoh Academy for a while" Ben retorted with an awkward smile. Quickly glancing at the title flying over his father's head.

 **Husband of Tennyson Household, Former Gunnery Sergeant USMC**

 **Lvl: 18**

 **Carl Tennyson**

As expected his Dad's level was higher than both him and his mother. Probably because he was an honourably discharged army veteran who had seen many wars, travelled to many hellholes on this globe and survived, experienced a lot of things...both good and bad. No wonder he was ranked three to four levels higher than the large bodybuilders he saw on the street.

"He he, that's a good thing. I don't think your mom is going to wake up any sooner and the only things I know how to make is Ramen, coffee, noodles and omelette. " Carl let out a chuckle, patting his son on the shoulders.

"Oh, Is she alright?" Ben asked out with a bit concern

"No worries son. Your mother may not look like it but she is really made from sterner stuff. She is just tired, that's all. " Carl gave him a reassuring smile.

Ben nodded in response. It wasn't the first time his mom overworked and got a little bit tired on the extreme side. And as much as he knew his mother, It won't be the last.

"Alright then, Dad! I am leaving for school. I have some stuff to do at the library."

"Sure thing Benjy! Oh would you be a dear and branch by the departmental store to buy some toiletries. We are nearly all out. Your mom called me on the cell to bring some yesterday but I totally forgot thanks to this incredibly irritating client."

PING

 **You have received a new quest.**

 **Your father has asked you to get a number of soap, shampoo and toothpaste for the house, Don't forget! And beware of innocent looking pretty highschool girls in uniforms which you don't recognize, They might ask you out on a romantic escapade only to turn into cruel nefarious creatures and slaughter you in cold blood when no one is paying attention!**

 **Bonus Objective: Get everything under 20% discount, Make sure to check the expiry date**

 **Rewards: 8200 Exp, 2000 Yen, Increased closeness with your father,?,?,?**

 **Failure: 100 Exp , Possible death**

 **Y/** N

Ben gulped in terror. Possible death? That was starting to get a bit scary. And it was pretty obvious by seeing the amount of EXP that there was going to be some danger or a life threatening situation involved. He immediately tried to push the N button, only to find out that the option was already grayed out. He couldn't decline the quest no matter how much he tried. He had to take this quest even though the window didn't exactly mention it for him like it did with previous one. Bracing himself for whatever danger he will have to face today, Ben pressed the Y button on the screen.

At first he thought he was the player, He immediately realized how wrong he was. At every step, At every turn, he was being played. It felt like all of his actions were predetermined by some strange invisible force. Something lurking behind the shadows, manipulating him as if he was a marionette. All of a sudden he felt deep down in his gut that he was being played. Being played by someone who turned his entire life into a video game. Someone who knew him better than even he could possibly do in several lifetimes.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. His entire life was ahead of him. As a game, And he had no other option to play it like a true player. He didn't have time to dwell on mistakes of the past or dangers of the future. He must play this game , The game of his life, with the greatest of his ability till its end.

He would finish this quest just like he did the last one and no matter how many tasks like that he received in the future, he would successfully finish them all. He will beat this game, no matter how hard or dangerous it may get in the future.

The theory of evolution said that only strong shall survive, maybe so, maybe so. But the theory of competition says that just because they are strong, doesn't mean they can't get their assess kicked.

No matter what his stats said, No matter what the system predicted, No matter what skills his enemies possessed and what level they were. Right here the results don't know who is that up. It's like his grandfather used to say, when the race is on, all bets are off.

And his race against time had just begun.

For his name was Benjamin Carl Tennyson,

And he was the Gamer, The Champion of this game called life.

...xxxxxx...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...


	6. Chapter 6

_Remember Roberto, Sword is just an extension of your body. In order to fight against powerful devils and dangerous monsters, you must become one with your weapon. Your mind, your body, your heart and your soul everything must work as one. Only than you can break through the confines of humanity and become a true soldier for heaven._

 _Hai, Father Strada! I won't disappoint you. I can't wait to dye the lands red with the blood of all those supernatural eyesores running around everywhere._

 _Child, remember! Your Duty is to carry out our lord's will and follow his teaching, Not hating and murdering all those who are not human._

 _But teacher, All those nasty humans who form pacts with the dirty devils, they must be punished. We must show them_

 _It's a shame that a lot of humans get easily swayed by the temptations of Devils and Fallen Angels but we must remember, It's our duty to guide them on the path of righteous. Not to murder them just because they have been enchanted by the devils._

 _I dunno, Do those people really deserve our mercy and a chance at redemption?_

 _Child, I really hope you change your mindset while you still can because if you don't I might have to enroll you into our recreational center. An Exorcist must fight in order to bring peace and restore order, not to sate his or her own hatred , bloodlust and drive for_ _violence. And those who do that, have no right to call themselves soldiers of our lord. Our Lord loved everyone, even fallen angels, devils and youkai. Only joining the battlefield when it became truly necessary to do so. I understand it might be a bit unrealistic to share his sentiments but you must understand, We draw our blades in order to defend ourselves and for the protection of those who aren't unable to do so. Especially not to wipe out all those of supernatural origins. We have no right to do so. We are exorcists, not barbarians_

 _You are being too idealistic, Teacher. Real world out there is harsh and difficult. You gotta man up and make tough choices sometimes. Besides this freaks have been breeding like rabbits, If we don't kill them, They will kill us. For the sake of our survival, we must show these...anomalies who is the boss._

 _..._

 _Two man clashed against each other in high speeds, something which was nearly impossible to achieve by even the finest of human athl_ _etes. Both of them were evenly matched against each other. Step for them. Not faltering for a single second. Each swing of the sword was blocked, each step countered. No blade ever made contact with flash. They twirled around each other as sparks flied in the air due to metal clashing against metal. The swordsmen's concentration far too focused to notice anything else going around in the world._

 _Without either of them noticing, the little sparring match was now over an hour long. They kept going at it until neither of them could move because of the pain and the fatigue they were experiencing. Bruises and scratches were all over their bodies. There cloths were now soaking wet due to sweating._

 _Leaping back, the two warriors glanced towards each other with calculating gaze , still trying to size up one another._

 _"Well, I think we should take a break, Sellzen." The brown haired muscular swordsman smiled._

 _The white haired swordsman collapsed against the nearby tree, while the more muscular swordsman leaned against a huge boulder, A maniacal smile evident on both of their faces._

 _"Hehe, come one Senpai! Don't give me that look. In my esteemed opinion we can keep this up for a couple of hours."_

 _"If your opinion mattered Freed, Bible would have been filled with curse words and all priests would be allowed to rape all the nuns and female angels. I wouldn't have minded though. I can't recall the last time I have had a "good time" with a woman."_

 _"Hmm...Why don't we just pick up one of those filthy demon summoners, have our way and then dump her body." Freed licked his lips in anticipation._

 _"I have a real itch that needs to be scratched, some worthless weak human won't do." Roberto scoffed in disgust and disappointment_

 _"Ah...we are hunting a Werewolf pack this weekend. Heard a few of their members have really nice racks.". Freed continued in a sinister grin, "Besides no one would miss if some shitty Youkais disappear."_

 _"Now we are talking Kouhai, Let's make them scream."_

 _..._

 _Kunou-chan, I told you many times you can't roam around the streets without someone from the palace escorting you._

 _Mommy, I just want to go out and make friends. Mommy is busy all the times and never plays with Kunou. Kunou really gets lonely and sad._

 _You know Kaa-san loves you right. But Kaa-san is also a queen, she has to take care of Kyoto and our people._

 _Kunou knows she's a princess and Kaa-san is a queen... it's just..._

 _I understand Kunou. But remember we are the nine tailed foxes. The highest caliber of Youkai. Leader of our race. People look up to us for protection and counsel. Kyoto and it's well being depends on our existence. I am the one containing, empowering, purifying and controlling the magic residing in the very air of this city. If anything were to happen to me or if I were to leave this place for prolonged time, The entire city will collapse and a lot of people both Youkai and humans will lose their lives._

 _Don't worry Kaa-san, Kunou will grow up to be a responsible and awesome adult. Then you won't have to worry about everything and we will spend a lots of time together._

 _Ufufu...I know my child. Someday you surely will. Now let's order you some Ice cream._

 _..._...

 _No young lady, you won't bother your Kaa-san anymore! You have to finish this essay about the royal lineage of Kyoto and importance of Ley lines_

 _But Tengu-san! NOOOOoooooo! This is unacceptable! Kunou shall wage a war upon you...Kaa-san ! save me._

 _No Foxfore while running in the hallways of the castle and no biting my wings, Do you know how much time it takes to apply shampoo on this things?_

 _Kunou hates homework! Kunou will never go to school._

 _..._

Ben grabbed his head, feeling like Optimus Prime and Megatron joined hands to turn his head into their own personal timpani. As if that was not enough, his hand started feeling itchy and warm all of a sudden. A certain spots also started burning a bit. He didn't lose any HP though. The memories which didn't belong to him flooded through his mind, alongside knowledge about certain subjects he initially didn't have. Multitude of images and visuals flashed in front of him, It felt like he was seeing things through someone else's eyes. However at the same time, it also felt real. As if he had been actually there to all those exotic places he saw in his memories. Whether it was the majestic church in Italy where exorcists went through rigorous training regime in order to battle against Devils and fallen angels or the depths of hell where fallen angels resided, constantly scanning the human world for the people born with sacred gears or the beautiful and splendid streets of Kyoto, The Youkai capital.

That was strange. It felt all too similar to absorbing new skills but Ben knew this feeling...it was different. He was dealing with something entirely else. His hand, it was getting infected from inside. It was like an insect wanted to crawl out from his left palm.

All of a sudden, a green swirling ball of energy formed in in his palms. Radiating a strange form of power and warmth. He looked around himself, really surprised at the lack of reaction from the passer-bys. As if they couldn't see him holding this holy freaking thing which appeared to be straight out from some strange fantasy Naruto style anime. A Nine tailed Fox, Glowing Rasengan thingy on his palms...now what was next, meeting a charismatic erotica writer slash super pervert who could summon gigantic toads.

Huh, seemed pretty fancy.

Out of curiosity Ben poked the swirling sphere in his hands using his fingers, Without any warning the ball of energy exploded in the massive surge of lightning which appeared to emerald in color. Bolts of electricity danced around his entire left arm, though not causing any damage to him or anything around him. Amidst the blinding flash of light which nearly caused him to cover his eyes, emerged a strange being. A small squid like green blob with small points which almost looked like the tentacle sprouting out from it's head. On that being's head, lied a green black hourglass symbol which he could never forget. Remainder of the great power he once wielded out of necessity and it was taken away from him immediately, power that he desired but he could never have. Omnitrix, The scientific wonder created by a genius whose intellect was unmatched throughout all the galaxies, The awe inspiring gadget allowing it's wielder to turn into all of those powerful and crafty alien species, whether it was a smart Galvan, a sturdy petrosapien or a mighty T'okustar...All that with just a tap on the symbol.

What he wouldn't give, just to have that power once again. Just to touch that magical wonder one more time in his life.

The small blob's lips (Or what it seemed like) curved into a small cryptic smile , appearing completely untouched despite the miniature storm of chaotic lightning it was stuck in. Before Ben could understand what the hell was going on, the small blob on his left palm disappeared in the dazzling display of cerulean light, leaving behind a green black hourglass tattoo on Ben's left palm

 **Bonding Process have been completed**

 **[Unitrix, The Claymore of Creation has been activated]**

Claymore of creation? Ben wondered out aloud, That really seemed like a fancy name. Giving him some sort of Final Fantasy/ God of War like vibe. The inner gamer inside of him was really tickled. Did he unlock some sort of badass bloodline thingy? On his own? And what was the relation between that thing and the omnitrix? Just when he started think he had everything figured out, Life threw a curveball at him. Man! He must have been born under a bad sign. He pressed the **?** sign near the window which popped up in front of him. Hoping to get some information about this strange new ability.

 **You are not authorized to view this information, Requirements: Lvl 85 or above**

 **STR has been increased by 3**

 **VIT has been increased by 3**

 **DEX has been increased by 3**

 **INT has been increased by 3**

 **WIS has been decreased by 5**

 **CHA has been increased by 7**

 **LUK has been increased by 2**

 _Lvl 70? You gotta be kidding me! How the hell am I supposed to reach that far? I am not even around twenty five yet Damn! This system really hates me. And why the hell did my WIS went down ? That too by 5, All other stats seems to have increased somehow._

 **New Transformations are available for usage**

 **Rogue Exorcist Mode [Time Duration: 36 minutes 56 seconds]**

 **Passively increases HP and MP by 66%**

 **Passively increases STR by 52%**

 **Passively increases DEX by 55%**

 **Passively increases VIT by 58%**

 **Skill [Vatican Style : Body Conditioning] available to use (Transferable to normal mode once VIT and DEX reaches 75)**

 **Skill[Vatican Style : Sword Technique] available to use (Transferable to normal mode once STR and DEX reaches 60)**

 **Skill[Sword Mastery] available to use ( Once transferred, Becomes available during Normal Mode)**

 **Skill [Vatican Style: Marksmanship] available to use ( Once transferred, Becomes available during normal mode)**

 **Skill [Firearms Mastery] available to use (Once transferred becomes available during normal mode)**

 **Skill[Vatican Style : Paladin's Lunge] available to use (Once transferred , Becomes available during normal mode)**

 **Skill[Hide of Benediction] available to use ( Transferable to normal mode once STR and VIT reaches 80)**

 **Skill[Jacob's Fighting Art] available to use (Transferable to normal mode once STR and DEX reaches 75)**

 **Title [Battle Master Saint] available to use ( 30% increase in experience to all eight basic principles of Vatican, 15% increase to all stats, 20% increase to bare hand and bare feet attacking speed, 20% increase to bare hand and bare feet attacking strength)**

 **(Only transferable once all above skills becomes available in normal mode, Requirements: WIS 80)**

 **Skill [ Magic Negating Strike] can not be used, Requirements: STR 180, DEX 200 , INT 120, WIS 110 (Transferable to normal mode if all stats requirements are met]**

 **Skill [Roland's Crushing Blow] can not be used, Requirements :STR 400, DEX 220, INT 194, WIS 178 (Transferable to normal mode if all stats requirements are met]**

 **Title [Inheritor of Siegfried] becomes available to use ( Holy Swords and Demonic Swords become available to equip, 50% increase in speed, 60% increase in damage dealt and 40% reduction in damage received during a battle fought using swords, 40% increase in experience)**

 **(This title can not be transferred to normal mode and other transformations)**

 **Do you wish to initiate the transformation? Y/N**

 **Rookie Fox Mode [Time Duration : 35 minutes 22 seconds]**

 **Passively increases HP and MP by 140%**

 **Passively increases STR by 62%**

 **Passively increases DEX by 62%**

 **Passively increases VIT by 70%**

 **Decreases INT by 5%**

 **Decreases WIS by 7%**

 **150% Additional bonus to [Life Energy Cultivation]**

 **120% Additional bonus to [ Pranic Healing]**

 **120% Additional bonus to [Ki Sprint]**

 **200% Additional bonus to [Mana Imbuement]**

 **200% Additional bonus to [Mana Reinforcement]**

 **200% Additional bonus to [Physical Endurance]**

 **250% Additional bonus to [Soul Crash], HP penalty reduced by half**

 **Skill [Foxfire] available to use (Can not be transferred to normal mode or any other transformations)**

 **Skill [Claws of Osaka ] available to use (Can not be transferred to normal mode or any other transformations)**

 **Skill[Ki sensing] available to use (Transferred to normal mode once INT and WIS reach 75)**

 **Skill [Nine Tails Transformation: Lord Of Kitsunes] can not be used. Requirements: STR 300, DEX 300, INT 265, WIS 250 (Can not be transferred to normal mode or any other transformations)**

 **Skill [Kitsune Battle Form] can not be used , Requirements: STR 120, DEX 120, INT 90, WIS 90 (Can not be transferred to normal mode or any other transformations)**

 **Title [Spirit Fox: Child of Inari ] available to use (40% additional bonus to Foxfire and other Kitsune magic techniques, -30% reduction in MP cost for all active skills, LUK and CHA increased by 50%, 40% in reputation while dealing with any Yokai)**

 **(Can not be transferred to normal mode or any other transformation)**

 **Note : Most if not all of your skills you use in normal human mode can be used during transformation, Though permanent changes to your status such as [Devil] , [Angel] or [Dragon] may or may not make some skills** **unavailable or evolve the old ones into something new.**

 **Do you wish to transform? Y/N**

Ben's mouth gaped wide open, That was really cool!

Hell Yeah! He really can't wait to use those transformations, That was so freaking awesome. It was like having the Omnitrix once again. But how did he acquire those two transformations and was it possible for him to acquire others? He needed to think about them a bit. He got the Fox from Kunou and because he got it from a child, His INT and WIS would lessen a bit every time he were to initiate the transformation. However, the transformation made up for it's little negligible shortcomings by offering him huge buffs in return. He got the exorcist form from that psychopath. Damn! He was a really nasty bugger. If it wasn't for Gamer's mind Ben would have gone crazy from seeing all those terrible things committed by he and his partner, the one called Freed did. However since the crazy guy was more experienced Ben received a whole lot of skills from him.

That brought him to another question, A guy with training and abilities like that, Was it possible to beat him in just one blow? Sure, Soul Crash was a powerful skill and it required the HP penalty for a certain reason but to beat someone like that...It really seemed like stretching things a bit. Ben really hoped he didn't earn himself a super villain, He wasn't ready to handle something like that right now. He was still fairly inexperienced with his abilities and pretty new to the hero business. Not in any position to make a super trained, super strong, psychopath, serial killer/rapist.

Closing his eyes, Ben took a long breath. He had no way of knowing what future has in store for him. All he could do was to be prepared, prepared to face any danger which was probably on its way to clash ram into his peaceful and comfy life. He just hoped he will be able to keep his family out of it. He will never be able to forgive himself if anything were to happen to them.

Feh , He didn't need to think about stuff like that right now. Being all gloom and doom wasn't going to solve any of his issues. Narrowing down his eyes at the sight of floating screen in front of him. Ben immediately pressed Y against the **[Rookie Fox Mode].** The tattoo on his left wrist gave a faint glow before vanishing from his sight and the screens around him disappeared. At first Ben didn't feel any changes, but suddenly he felt a strange tingling sensation in his body. It felt like the crowd around him had been talking and moving slower than usuals.

He felt distracted by everything that was happening around him. He felt light and brightness washing through the entire world around him, The way he could smell, The way he could see, The way he felt sensations, The way he heard voices, everything was drastically _different_ now and enhanced. He could even see the wings of small insects flying in the air. Everything whether it was living or dead, let out sparks of different color. It was really strange. For a moment, Ben was bizarrely unsure about himself...uncertain about what he was actually seeing.

He walked down towards the sidewalk which led to Kuoh Academy. Everyone were overlaid in different shade of lights. Distinguished from each other. Was this how Kitsunes saw the world? He never felt anything like that while wielding the Omnitrix. He clearly remembered that sensation, This new power he had was drastically different from that. Everytime he got within a certain distance from a person, a dog, a cat, a vehicle...he could feel them. He could feel them shaking the ground beneath him. This feeling reminded him of that once time when he accidently got his feet stuck inside a box of needles. The only things different were that he didn't feel any pain , this was at least no less than thousand times more intense and he felt it in his entire body.

Then there was the fact that thing around him were moving slower, However he needed some time to wrap around that fact.

The closer he reached to Kuoh premises, things became even harder to contains. His enhanced senses perceptive started getting even worse, He felt a bit disoriented and lighthearted. He wasn't used to see things like that. He needed to clear his head and get some command over his senses. Taking a deep breath Ben stepped inside an ally which felt quiet. It was placed in between two old run down shops which always appeared to be close. Ben didn't care if that was a dead end, He just needed to catch a breather.

Damn! He had no idea it was going to be this much harder. That was insane. He needed to get a better grasp on this transformation ability. As soon as possible. Midway down the alley, he leaned against a wall, starting to feel a bit better. But suddenly he felt his hair stand up, feeling that something was behind..no directly _above_ him. Even with his newfound enhanced perception , All he could see was just a shadow disappearing through the clouds. With what appeared be ten jet black wings sprouting behind his back. The moment Ben saw the title window floating on the disappearing man's back, His face nearly lost all the color

 **Kokabiel - The Fallen lord of Sky- Lvl 218**

 _Holy crap! That guy is almost near Yasaka's level._

Before Ben could ponder upon the possibilities of running into a nearly unbeatable boss, He felt something coming towards him. He looked around and sure enough it was a man falling from the sky, like a meteor, heading straight towards him. Strangely enough it did take him a few more seconds to reach the ground then Ben initially expected. It wasn't slow motion like the hollywood movies, The man was falling towards him in an extremely fast pace, of course gravity didn't help much. Ben immediately got out of the way, feeling the man's skin whizz past his body as he got slammed in the nearby dumpster.

Ben swallowed hard as the gruff bearded man coughed. He was wearing a dark blue uniform , completely red due to a lot of bleeding. All that blood leaking out from his wounds really disturbed Ben but somehow he was able to regain his calm and walked towards him.

 **Thomas** **Waldseemuller- Vassal of Rapahel- Lvl 27**

The man slowly put his body in a sitting position, Through great efforts though. He clutched his stomach tightly with both hands, however he terribly failed to stop himself from nearly drowning in his own pool of blood. With every breath, He slid more and more closer to his death.

Ben crouched down towards him.

"Hey, Let me call an ambulance."

"It's no use." The man chuckled " I am dying anyways, What is your name, child?"

"Ben, Ben Tennyson." Ben said, completely in shock about what just transpired in front of him.

"Please send Lord your prayers, Ben Tennyson. Excaliburs have fallen into wrong hands." The man spoke in a rather strained voice.

"Excalibur? As in Excalibur from Merlin and King Arthur...that Excalibur?" Ben dumbfounded.

"The town is..." The man coughed violently, blood bursting out from his mouth, It felt like he wanted to talk more but couldn't, no matter how he tried. Before Ben could understand what he was mumbling about, The man's head went limp.

"Alright! I have a healing skill. Hope it works." Ben closed his eyes for a moment and called forth the skill Pranic Healing. Cerulean aura shot out burst out from his fingers.

 **[Pranic Healing] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic Healing] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic** **Healing** **] can not affect the dead**

 **[Pranic Healing] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Pranic Healing] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Pranic Healing] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Pranic Healing] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Pranic Healing] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Pranic Healing] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Life Energy Cultivation] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Life Energy Cultivation] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Life Energy Cultivation] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Life Energy Cultivation] has leveled up by 1**

Ben opened his eyes, grinding his teeth in frustration. He had used up all of his MP points, yet he failed to heal that man. Only if he had used that skill sooner...

However, The wounds on that man's body were now completely closed and blood had returned to his body. Even has tattered and bloodier clothes were now back to normal. But once Ben checked his pulse, he was met by nothing but disappointment. His pulse was now gone. He may have been able to restore his body back to normal but it was too late.

 **A special skill has been created through special actions,**

 **[Pranic Restoration, ( Active) Lvl 2, Exp:33.37%, MP cost: 32 per minute]**

 **Through continuous usage of Prana, you have now acquired the ability to restore or " fix" things back to their prior state. This ability only works on non living things.**

Ben immediately shut down the pop up window, not really interested in his Gamer ability right now.

 _"It's not my fault_." Ben chanted to himself. His eyes stuck on the dead body like a glue.

What should he do? Call the cops? This really didn't seem like something which can be solved by human means. Should he contact Yasaka? He didn't exactly has her contact number or any other means to communicate with her. She did tell him that she would immediately know if he were to visit Kyoto and will seek him out in no time. But Ben really had no idea whether he was in position to travel that far or not.

Suddenly he felt a burning sensation through his left hand, Green lightning danced around his left arm once again, dispersing a few droplets of blood he got on his hand while attempting to heal him. The green and black hourglass tattoo appeared on the top of his palm , glowing with a ferocious aura for a few moments before the electric texture got completely absorbed inside it, forming a chaotic vortex of thunder.

Damn! It really hurt, as if his hand was stung by a horde of bees. Eventually the pain subsided and the tattoo vanished, alongside the lightshow.

 **STR has increased by 0.5**

 **VIT has increased by 0.5**

 **DEX has increased by 0.5**

 **INT has increased by 2**

 **WIS has increased by 4**

 **CHA has increased by 0.7**

 **LUK has increased by 0.3**

 _What do you mean by this? This can't be possible._

 _It is true, He is really here._

 _But this doesn't make sense? Why he of all people would attempt to make Kuoh his base? Especially with both the Maou's little sisters living in the area_

 _Some foul play is involved, We can't deny that. We must retrieve the swords at any cost. If it's not possible to get them back, We will just destroy them altogether. But that power must not fall in the hands of the Grigory._

 _What about the Holy Maiden? She kinda saved my brother's life once...I don't wish to harm her. She never intended to betray our lord's teachings. She is just...victim of her own circumstances_

 _It's what she chose for herself and she has to face the consequences for that. You must follow the orders from our institution senpai. It's what we do_

 _It's what you do Xenovia. I don't tend to be dogmatic about these things_

Ben shook his head as his mind flooded with strange images and strange voices, Once again he saw places he never visited and people he had never seen before in his life. Holy Maiden? Excalibur? Fallen? What were these people talking about? He couldn't make anything out of it.

 **New Transformations available for usage**

 **The Meticulous Cleric Mode [Time Duration: 36 minutes, 43 seconds]**

 **God's Artifact [Divine Resuscitation] becomes available during the transformation.**

Ben took a long breath. Another fancy word he had no freaking idea about. It seemed pretty weird how the system kept coming up with such ridiculous syllables. Police was eventually going to stumble upon this dead body. If they found him standing here like this, He would land up in another huge mess. He had a lot on his plate already. He didn't want to add even more stress by going through police investigation. Besides it wasn't most likely possible to explain this situation to authority. Only someone from Supernatural world might be able to help him. But then again it seemed like he was fated to encounter more enemies rather than stumbling upon allies.

Immediately increasing his pace, Ben stepped out of the alley and started racing towards the Kuoh Academy. Trying his hardest to keep a poker face and not letting it show that he just witnessed a man possibly stabbed to death and tossed like trash by a guy with crow wings who could level the entire town with his pinky?

Feh, They would either throw him in a mental asylum or drug rehab.

What should he do? Ben asked himself but no answer came from the inside. Absentmindedly he scratched his left palm, right where the green black hourglass tattoo appeared. He felt the tingle on his shoulder, having a gut feeling that something or someone was following him behind. However, He didn't dare to turn his head. He was not in mood to deal with any complications right now. He crossed his fingers and prayed that it wasn't the super powerful Kokabiel guy. Normally, He wouldn't hesitate from facing his enemy head on. But right now he was completely shaken to the core. He was calm outwardly due to Gamer's mind but he surely needed some time to gather his thoughts.

He just wanted to crawl inside a place in which no one would bother him.

PING

 **New Quest has been created**

 **Clock is ticking**

 **Due to getting lost in your own world of thoughts and getting involved in some unpleasant business, You have wasted a lot of time. You now have ten minutes or less to make it on time for your first class.**

 **Completion Reward: 340 Exp, 1000 Yen, Reputation with Faculties Kuoh Academy and Student Council is increased**

 **Completion Failure: Detention, Decrease closeness with Student Council and Faculties of Kuoh Academy**

Ben shrugged. Without wasting any further moment, He accepted the quest.

Even though things appeared like this, One fact was definitely certain.

The stakes were real now, He needed a moment to think about his future actions.

This game has just turned a whole lot more dangerous.

And just like that, He started running towards the academy. Without a care for anything else in the world.

A black haired girl around Ben's age stepped out from a corner, glancing towards the direction where Ben went. She had exotic purple eyes and wore a strange high school uniform which didn't belong to any academic institutions located inside the city.

A malicious glint appeared in her eyes as she spoke to no one in particular, A sinister smile forming on her lips

"Well, well, It seems I have found myself a date."


	7. Chapter 7

**Grand** **Entrance Of The Gamer**

Now that he had a bit of time to process over a few things, He recalled his conversation with Yasaka, Even though she was in hurry, The Fox Empress did tell him a lot about the supernatural world, Mainly focusing on Fallen Angels and Devils.

Fallen angels were angels that had fallen from the grace of God, due to having "impure thoughts" that diverted them from the teachings of the God in the Bible. Their leaders were Archangels who were initially sent to watch over the mankind and help them with their progress without being intrusive. At first they did a phenomenal job. Their leader, Also known as Azazel, taught mankind how to make knives, swords, shields, how to devise ornaments and cosmetics, sorcery and the forbidden arts of resolving the enchantments. Baraquiel taught humanity how to read the language of clouds and predict the weather. Kokabiel taught humans Astrology and the courses of the moon. There were other too but right now Ben only recalled those three ( It wasn't like they mattered right now, He already knew about the important ones)

Unfortunately, The archangels and their two hundred followers became tempted by human women and had fallen from the heaven's grace after having sex with them. Despite being cast out of Heaven, Fallen Angels and their subordinates have been known to occupy churches and use them as bases. However, they go out of their way to destroy all of the religious icons in these churches in the process out of spite for their former leader. Despite being extremely prejudiced against Angels and God, They are still hunting down anything that can be classified as Devil or monster. Yasaka explained that the exorcist they had encountered probably belonged to fallen angel faction. Because a proper one wouldn't have dared to hunt down a child like that. They tended to recruit the psychotic overexcited zealots banished from church due to their fanatical ways in order to fill their numbers.

It was quite expected from a sick and twisted individual to slice apart anyone that seemed even remotely against their personal beliefs. So Kunou was attacked just because she was a youkai, An abomination who shouldn't exist according to the psychopath's beliefs. Saving Kunou made his system surge with with pride and righteousness. Making him feel that he finally found his place in this world. Everything around him changed from the day forth. Now he did save the world during the invasion of Evil versions of himself and Vilgax but he was constantly guided by Paradox about what he had to do and how he needed to use the omnitrix. This time though, Things were different and because of the way he was forced to deal with the situation on his own, It gave an odd sense of satisfaction to him.

During the great three way world war between God, Fallen Angels and Devils, Fallen Angels were the first to retreat after losing most of their forces, except for their leaders. Ever since then, their leader, Azazel , the first archangel to fall from Heaven's grace, had become more peaceful and tries to avoid battles as much as possible. Angels and Devils too eventually followed the example, deciding to give each other a certain amount of berth to operate in human world.

Yasaka was quite sure that the exorcist acted on his own. Sometimes fights took place between the Fallen Angels and other factions which doesn't reach Azazel or respective Faction's leaders. From what she had known and seen from Azazel, That man was a pacifist. He appeared to be a bit of crazy scientist at times and had his own perks but overall he was a pretty alright guy. In short Ben didn't need to worry about being hunted down by Fallen Angels. Besides Fallen Angels were more interested in Children of God aka Humans born with irregular artifacts capable of enacting miracles. It has been stated that certain individuals with Sacred Gears have grown to become very powerful and influential and that a large number of the people who have had their names etched into history such as Odysseus, Jason, Alexander, Hippocrates, Chandragupta Maurya etc , were most likely Sacred Gear possessors. They liked to invite or take in possessors of Sacred Gears that have no family and are left alone, looking after these Sacred Gear possessors while training them on how to use their powers, turning them into experienced possessors to remain within the organization.

Besides there was supposed to be a truce between three factions. Human world is considered a neutral place for everyone to operate and even during the skirmishes between them, They tried their best not to get the humans involved. Unfortunately, The world is a violent place and it is nearly impossible to live in peace, Especially for superpowered beings who had such drastic differences with each other since the very beginning of days , and let's not even talk about the amount of persistent and continual resentment they continue to hold towards each other...It's pretty obvious that conflicts do still take place, With each side rather adamant about securing the advantage

Devils of current generations were vastly different from their rather malicious and scary fictional portrayals. Devils usually gained power by fulfilling requests of human. Which ranged from mundane housework , finding a lost pet, listening about a person's rants in regards to his/her miserable life and/or provide them counseling...to bodyguard request and sometimes weebs even summoned them for cosplaying as their favorite anime characters. The most shocking thing was that, They no longer accepted souls in return for granting wishes. Yeah, According to Yasaka, It was now considered one of the most heinous crimes in the Underworld, Those who even dared to follow such old fashioned barbaric practises would be sentenced to death of the worst kind. Well, that felt a bit strange. In order to do work unhindered, they claimed towns and cities as their territories. If Devils tried to do what he used to see in horror movies and comic books, They would be hunted down and put out of their misery like rabid dogs by none other than their own kind first before any other side attempted to intervene. However, Yasaka also mentioned that Devils were actually used to be the evil beings who wished to wreck havoc upon heaven and humanity but changed their ways after a great civil war which took place thousands of years ago. Now a days, It was more likely to run into a friendly devil rather than a murderous one.

Currently, This area was co operated by two High ranking devils. . Each of them being the heirs of one of the thirty three royal families of pure blood demons(It really gave him a Harry Potter vibe) Originally Underworld aka Hell was ruled over by seventy two royal families, who were also known as pillars. However a large portion of them perished in the World war against angels and fallen angels . Trimming them down to their current numbers.

And this was as far as Ben's knowledge for supernatural went. Unfortunately knowing about them wasn't the same as knowing them.

From what he could gather, The current fiasco was about Angels, The mythical sword called Excalibur which belonged in the Arthurian folkfores, A super powerful murderous psychopath named Kokabiel and two sisters of Maous who resided in Kuoh. There was also this Holy Maiden thrown in the mix and from what he heard and seen from the man's vision seemed like someone the man sympathized with for a certain reason. Last but not the least, The entire town was in danger thanks to some ominous scheme taking place behind the curtain. Ben didn't know what that scheme was or who was the orchestrator of those events but there was one thing for sure. One event led to another. Like some sort of chain reaction. Everything was connected. He knew it, He was sure of it, His gut feeling told him so, All he needed to find was to find the thread which connected all the major players of this dangerous game to each other

Who was the man he stumbled upon? Was he a human or something else? Why he used the plural excaliburs instead of referring the sword in singular? If there were multiple swords, how many were out there and what powers or abilities these swords possesed? Who was the holy maiden? Why was working for the evil Kokabiel? And how sisters of Maous were involved with those events?

Right now, All he could see was questions staring in his face, tough questions, painful questions...and it was hard to find answers to them. However he needed to give it a shot. The only information he had right now was from the game he used to play during his middle school, Star Ocean. In that game he went up against a story boss named Kokabiel, based on the Archangel of the same name who fell from Heaven's grace alongside his other comrades. Ironically, It took Ben a total of three months and thousand lives to beat that level. He was a nasty thing to deal with and if his instincts weren't wrong, Real life Kokabiel wasn't much different from that.

Unfortunately, putting two and two together wasn't really as easy like those CSI style detective shows. Even with Gamer abilities, He was no Sherlock Holmes or Patrick Jane, He needed to find answers to all these questions hard way.

Doing that was going to require lots time , efforts and luck. Even if he worked hard and completely dedicated himself in order to solve this mystery, there were no sure chances of his success. This puzzle was highly complex, mysterious and deadly. With no clear result in the sighting and him not having access to all pieces of information, all he could do was to take a shot in the dark and pray upon the almighty fates that it would work. He didn't even know where to begin. He was that much lost. How was he supposed to look deeper into this matter?

Maybe he didn't need to. Perhaps he was just being paranoid and taking everything a little bit too seriously. Why can't he just let supernatural folks deal with supernatural issues. It isn't like they are some damsel in distress waiting for his help. These being were eons older , well experienced, well equipped, well knowledgeable and for major part more than capable enough to defend themselves. He didn't need to intervene in their matters. Besides it wasn't like this was one of those unavoidable quests offered by gaming system that he needed to play. He had every right to walk away from this and carry on with his regular life or whatever sort of regular life someone with his abilities could possibly lead.

What would Ben Prime have done in his situation? Would he choose to put his life on the line for the people who were far more stronger and experienced then him, even when they didn't ask or need his help in particular? or He would have stepped away from their conflicts, moving on towards the people who actually needed his help.

Then again does a hero has right to be selective about who he needs to save and who he doesn't? Wouldn't that make him a hypocrite? Was he being selfish by thinking about his survival first and foremost? or He was being smarter by not taking on the enemies way more powerful than him?

Decisions...Decisions...Why it was so freaking hard to make a damn choice?

 _"Damn! Did I accidently unlock the hard mode by activating this Unitrix thing? Sure seems like it . "_ Ben thought to himself as he entered inside the Kuoh academy, followed by a huge nearly impossible by human standards sprint. He could surely run faster now, even while holding himself back by a LOT. The only thing he could hear was his own breath. He hopped through the obstacles as if it was his second nature. Make the world's best parkour athlete weep even with two of his hands and one leg tied behind his back. Wind blew past his face, as if acknowledging the sheer force of his speed. Most people couldn't even run for ten minutes non stop without stopping for a breather, even the Kuoh's own Trekking team wouldn't dare to sprinting for that long without a break.

A small smile formed on his lips. It didn't matter whether this Unitrix made his life harder or not, He had to admit one thing though. This power was # #$ broken!

...xxxxxx...xxxxxxxxx...xxxxxxx...

Despite looking like a modern day castle, Kuoh academy was just like your everyday average high school. Better infrastructure and huge campus didn't make it classes even a little bit tolerable for him. Most girls were attractive, It didn't help the fact that the female uniform was particularly designed in a way to appear more pleasing to the eyes. Even if you were a born saint, you can't help yourself when strong gust of wind got added to the mix. Male uniform was really bland and ordinary. Similar to the wearers. Apart from it, Famous people ruled it. Teachers taught in it. Student were particularly not interested in learning useless stuff but were forced to do that anyways. Majority were talking about Student Council and Occult Research Club. Sports like Kendo and Tennis were more popular than Soccer and Basketball. Breakup incidents, The Onee-samas and clubs were 70% part of the gossip mill. Ben had never been involved with such things in the first place. He wore his careless expressions as he passed through the horde of students, Mostly consisting of girls and a few guys.

Though giving credit where it's due, Kuoh academy was a high end private highschool and University. The academy itself was also very prestigious garnering many overseas foreign exchange students. The admission requirements were also very steep. Ben wasn't really sure how he got into this school. He never expected to get through the screening process and only gave it a shot because his parents insisted. He really didn't give a damn about the high disparity between males and females or the fact that Kuoh used to be an all girls private academy before , opting to become co ed very recently. The academy had the virtue of being the nearest high school from his home and his parents were sold from the very moment they saw this advertisement on telly.

Last but not the least, Cafeteria was the best part of the school. Food here was top notch. Having the perfect smell, taste and it was prepare very thoroughly. It was really on a whole new level compared to anything but his mom's dishes.

Yup, His mom still came at the top. It was going to take a lot more than that to dethrone the Heavenly Mistress of Kitchen, the name his father used while referring to her.

"Yo, Ben-senpai! Good morning. What took you so long? Your Tou-san said you left quite early"

Ben grimaced as he heard a familiar voice calling out to him from behind, revealing to be Issei Hyoudou, his junior.

Issei Hyoudou was a boy a year younger than Ben , He was a bit shorter than the young Tennyson, with an overall plain face and brown hair. He had perfectly average looks. Though Ben's history of being an athlete and years of learning self defense. made him a bit more appealing.

He also happened to be a pervert who has a habit of fantasizing women naked, and is well known for being creepy at the Academy. Quite famous for his perverse thoughts and actions , He is also the leader of infamous "Perverted Trio" . Dreaming about someday becoming what he dubbed as "Harem King" , getting multiple lovers and shamelessly announced such things to the entire world on daily bases. So far he could hardly get any girls at school to talk to for more than one minute, For obvious reasons of course. With his perverted personalities and unnatural libido, he was most probably never going to achieve his goal. In addition to all that, with his nasty habit of peeking on Girl's locker room, . He was doomed from the very beginning , Never getting the chance to make a good first impression.

Unfortunately, He also happened to the only son of Ben's landlord and next door neighbour.

"I stopped by a bookstore in order to search for this month's copy of To Aru Majutsu no Index." Ben lied through his teeth. He didn't why or how, Lying had became a lot more easier once he achieved his Gamer ability. He really hoped he won't make a habit of it.

Issei met Ben first time when his family rented their old ancestral house and the Hyoudou family shifted into their new apartment complex , Provided by the company Issei's parents worked for. Conveniently , It was located right in the next street. While at first they didn't talk much, The dynamic between them changed once Ben found the thirteen year old pervert getting beaten up by bunch of delinquents at a playground. No need to say with a certain amount of difficulty Ben managed to thrash all of them up. Showing off his excellent self defense skills. The reason behind the fight was that Issei accidently spilt some of his cola on one of the nasty looking kids, Issei apologized immediately but the enraged group who considered the playground their turf didn't give a shit about how many times he apologized and started ganging up on him. Of course, till Ben intervened.

Isse was grateful for what the young Tennyson did for him back then, thus he considered him as a friend.

...There was one thing about Ben which really pissed him off. Ben was a little bit too much of a prude and goody two shoes to read or watch X rated stuff (He did watch X rated stuff sometimes (Just like every other typical boy around his age) but Ben didn't feel like giving Issei that little tidbit of information. Though he was no longer the notorious prankster he was used to be during his childhood, He did enjoy messing with people's head, whenever he could) He even refused to peep on Kendo Club everytime he asked him. Issei had sworn an oath to corrupt him to " dark" side and convince him into having a harem of his own. He shall succeed one day! That was his promise as a Harem King

"Any new copies of Magical Girl Milky Spiral?" He asked with a playful grin

"Sorry to disappoint you, But I don't go to bookstore looking out for playboy bunny girl mags" Ben massaged his forehead, letting out a huge sigh. "I swear to God Oppai-Baka, You are never going to change."

"S-shut up, You smug bastard!" Issei's eyebrow twitched in irritation. For the love of breasts and women, Issei hated that nickname. Ironically the name really stick with his personality. It was the name everyone used to make fun of him and remind him the fact that he didn't have any girlfriend. Damn! if only he could find that person who gave him that stupid nickname...

"Whatever!" Ben rolled his eyes, A ghost of smile appearing on his face as he put his stuff inside the shoe locker.

"Jeez, Ben-senpai! What was that for? Just because I am pervert doesn't mean you can abuse me like that." Issei cried out, shakily pointing an accusing finger towards him.

"Hmm..." Ben looked up at the brown haired teen who threw him a hard glare, "Feh! stop being such a crybaby Hyoudou!"

"I bet you are just jealous that you never got to peek at the heavenly bodies of women like me." Issei responded with a triumphant grin

"I am glad that you are so concerned about my lack of sexual life rather than other important topics...such as health, education, our family's financial condition etc." Ben cocked his head in emphasis

"Senpai, I am trying to get you to be comfortable around the female body. You are too shy around the girls." Issei started as soon as they began climbing the stairs to reach their respective classrooms, " My reputation is at stake here."

" No offense Issei, What _reputations_? " Ben shook his head nonchalently. A part of his mind urged him to come up with something sarcastic but eventually he decided not to.

"He he, I am not giving up on you Senpai. We gotta live our lives while it's full, you know!"

Letting out a huge sigh, Ben continued " Feh, Whatever floats your boat buddy!"

This was how usually they began their day. People did find their friendship a bit abnormal. Ben was well known as an accomplished athlete throughout the academy. He should have been more popular if the soccer team was at least half decent . Unfortunately, the coach wasn't really interested in taking them anywhere and at this point Ben didn't really care. He played for his own enjoyment afterall. The guys weren't good at winning much and thus, they didn't get the same amount of respect people gave to Tennis club and Kendo club. Despite that, Ben was reasonably well liked. Not enough to be considered an Idol like the Onee-samas but still , At times, he had managed to convince the girls of Kendo club into calming down and cut Issei some slack. Towards Issei's frustration though Ben didn't intervene every time he got caught by the crowd of angry bamboo sword wielding girls.

Still, In spite of having completely polar opposite personalities both oddballs were friends with each other and pretty good ones actually. They weren't nigh inseparable or anything like that but considering all things said and done, they were fairly close.

"Issei Hyoudou!" A gruff, rude voice called out from the hallways. Ben turned around only to see some first year students from College part of Kuoh's campus, which technically made them his seniors, gradually nearing towards them in a very threatening manner. Ben instantly recognized one of them, He was Hayate Sarashiki , Former Captain of Kuoh's Wrestling team. He was rather well known for winning a few competitions and a rather violent streak throughout his tenure as a high school student in Kuoh. He wasn't really a mean spirited bully but he did have a very short fuse, Not thinking much before beating the crap out of people. The others must be his lackeys. He might have seen them before but Ben couldn't exactly recall their names.

"Sarashiki-senpai! What a pleasant surprise? How have you been?" Ben responded with a cheerful smile.

"Stay out of my way Tennyson! This is between me and the pervert." The athlete who stood at large six foot, rudely brushed him off. Immediately he grabbed Issei by the collar and pulled him face to face.

"Bastard! I heard you and your dumb lecherous friends were peeking on my girl Yukina in the Tennis Club's locker room. How dare you pull off something like that, asshole?" Hayate spat out in anger

"Well, Oppai Baka and his friends are living embodiments of lust and carnal pleasure who can't help themselves. Though I would say he wasn't peeping on your girl in particular, He was peeping at all the girls. " Ben replied neutrally, taking a few steps backwards from the scene.

"Damn!" Issei cursed under his breath struggling to get away from the man's grip, "Thanks Ben, You are a big lifesaver." He retorted sarcastically. Towards his surprise Ben just waved his hands in dismissal, refusing to intervene.

"Even I haven't seen my chick in birthday suit yet, Why should some random lech?" The muscular wrestler cried out in jealousy, tightening his grip on the Aluminum bat which was very recently handed over to him by a friend. Issei gritted his teeth in fear , holding up his hands in order to block. He knew this was going to hurt, a lot. The eighteen year old raised the bat, eager to thrash the vulgar boy who feasted his eyes on his girlfriend's naked form. Aiming for his torso, He slammed the bat with a wide powerful swing.

However the blow never came, When Issei opened his eyes he was surprised to see that Ben was already standing between him and the angry guy with the bat. Even though the other guy appeared to be more muscular and stronger, not to mention the way he swung the bat, Ben remained completely unaffected by the attack. Not even moving a single inch from his place. Instead, It was the sturdy looking aluminum bat which snapped in half, The owner of baseball bat stared at the broken remains of his weapon then at Ben.

"How did he do that? and did you see how fast he move?" The older teen cried out in shock and amusement. Some sharp portion of the metallic alloy hit Issei in the elbow, causing a small cut to appear in his hands. A few small droplets of blood leaked out from the relatively non existent bruise and fell on Ben's left wrist.

Ben gritted his teeth, feeling like his hand was on fire. Jet black flames which were only visible to him engulfed his entire left arm before getting replaced by a bright cerulean texture of electricity. Strange images and visuals flooded inside his mind once again. This time he found himself going through a series of porn movies, peeking on girls' locker room through a peeping hole situated right behind the old school building and wait a minute! Murayama was actually wearing a pink lingerie with hearts while practicing kendo. That was weird, why would someone possibly want to strip down to their underwear while practising kendo. Did they know they were being peeped on or something like that?

Damn! He was really starting to think like a creepy lecherous guy.

Eventually his memory settled on the fairly well furnished and well financed Student Council building. Well that was strange, He had never been there before. Then he was hit by the visual of the young bespectacled woman with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut and violet eyes , whom he recognized as Souna Shitori , The President of Student Council herself talking with Issei.

 _Thank you for coming Hyoudou Issei._

 _If you don't mind me asking...why am I here Kaichou?_

 _First of all, What I am going to tell you, You may find it hard to believe but trust me , I am speaking nothing but the truth. In your left arm, resides the spirit of a powerful Dragon called Ddraig, Also known as the Red Dragon Emperor_

 _Oh come on Shitori-senpai! I might be a pervert but I am definitely not an idiot._

 _Well it seems I have to show you some proof._

Ben grabbed his head for a moment, The sharp headache throbbed inside his skull subsided as the visuals and strange images eventually stopped.

 **STR has been increased by 1**

 **VIT has been increased by 3**

 **DEX has been increased by 1**

 **INT has been decreased by 5**

 **WIS has been decreased by 6**

 **LUK has been increased by 2**

 **CHA has been increased by 2**

 **New Transformation [Welsh Demonic Pawn Mode] is available for usage ( Time limit: Twenty eight Minutes, thirty four seconds)**

 **Passively increases HP by 70%**

 **Passively increases MP by 35%**

 **Passively increases STR, DEX, VIT by 80% during night, Passively decreases STR, DEX, VIT by 43% during daytime**

 **Passively increases all stats by 11%**

 **Effects of the title [Oppai Baka] is completely negated by [Gamer's Mind]**

 **Skill [Promotion: Rook] is now available**

 **Skill[Promotion: Bishop] is now available**

 **Skill[Promotion:Queen] is now available**

 **Skill[Promotion :Knight] is now available**

 **Skill[Promotion: Bishop] is now available**

 **Do you wish the Unitrix to forge God's artifact [Boosted Gear] ( Estimated time for building: Nine hundred hours, seventy five minutes, fifty eight seconds. MP cost for keeping the creation forge: 509 a day, HP cost for keeping the creation forge running: 354 a day, STR, VIT and DEX passively reduced by 15% as long as creation forge is active)**

 **(Y/N)**

 **Note: None of the skills in this mode is transferable to normal mode or other transformations**

 **Congratulations, You have discovered a new ally**

 **[Midgardsormr, Also referred as The World Serpent has requested to join your party]**

 **Do you accept?** ( **Y** / **N** )

 **Note: This screen will keep popping up until you accept and once you reach Lvl 22, [Midgardsormr] automatically gets added as an ally**

In legends , It was said that the destiny has two ways of testing the moral fibre of a hero. Either by letting everything happen at the same time or letting nothing happen at all. Ben was supposedly dealing with the former right now. Immediately closing off all the window. First he needed to deal with the matter on his hands then move on towards something else.

Clapping his hands together, Ben bowed at the muscular guy with an not so obvious faux apologetic grin plastered on his face, "I apologize on the behalf of Oppai Baka and his friends. Please forgive my friend for his perverted actions." He glanced at Issei , who he had pushed behind his back, "Come on Hyoudou! Apologize to Sarashiki-senpai!"

Issei dumbfounded, What the hell was going on inside Ben's mind? And how did he manage to pull off something like that? He knew Ben was strong but to do _that..._ Damn! He thought Ben was cool before but now he took this on an entirely another level.

"Umm..I am sorry. Please forgive me." Issei apologized, He was still shaken by the whole fiasco but complied nonetheless.

"W-What? What is the meaning of this Tennyson? Do you want to fight with me...for this creep?" Hayate mumbled, trying to regain his wits. He really didn't expect to see anything like that when he first decided to barge in here to beat the crap out Issei.

"Of course not Senpai! Why do you think something crazy like that? What could I...a mere second rate soccer goalie do to the one and only wrestling champion of Kuoh University?" Ben responded with a sickeningly sweet smile as he stepped closer, Keeping his eyes locked with the senior as the angry wrestler looked up and down, apparently sizing up his new foe " I understand Issei is Issei and your anger is justified. But he is my neighbour and friend. So I would rather not let things get out of hand. My grandfather used to tell me, A civil conversation remains a civil conversation unless a punch is thrown. Once a punch is thrown, you must commit yourself to the fight. You can never take back a punch . Forgiveness becomes a hard thing to ask for when you know you don't deserve it. We both are athletes right. Let's handle this matter with a bit of tact. Just like responsible adults, Shall we? " He added with child like innocence in his voice, extended his hand. His voice devoid from even the slightest bit of malice or arrogance.

However, the enraged wrestler failed to notice the simple fact.

"How dare you? HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME, YOU SHITTY GAIJIN?" The senior growled in outrage, His entire body shaking with anger as he charged towards Ben. Towards his credit, He was fast, really fast. However to Ben right now, it seemed like he was moving a slow motion. Smoothly ducking under his fist, Ben reflexively spun around, his back brushing against the wall. The confused Hayate glanced at the spot where Ben was standing before and called out to him furiously.

"Get back here you fuckin rat!" He yelled before advancing on to Ben once again. This time joined by his friends. Ben dashed towards his right, lunging forward in a hop , Three seniors charged towards him from different directions, attempting to drive him into a corner. Grinning ear to ear, Ben kicked himself up in the air using one of the chairs with the grace of ballerina and backflipped over the heads of all three. Causing them to ram into each other. Ben blinked in confusion as the entire hallway exploded with a round of cheer, applause and wolfish whistles. It seemed that his little fight had managed to garner a lot of attention from the students, especially girls (Huge gender disparity). A lot of female students had gathered to witness the game of cat and mouse between gang of wrestlers and the gamer.

"Kyaah! I know he is fighting for the pervert but...he is so cool."

"I would murder anyone to get a hunk like that!"

"Sorry, Yuto-san! I have found the new man of my dreams."

"Damn! I never realized he looked so delicious, Does he live in gym or something like that?"

 _"So much for subtlety"_ Ben shuddered for a moment, Now he knew what the so called three Onee-samas of the academy went through their entire day. Dealing with attention like that can surely prove to be a massive headache. He didn't know how Ben Prime dealt with being a world famous superhero. Sure he loved the attention, just like his parallel counterparts. However, excessive amount of that could have surely made him go through a nervous breakdown or he would have started taking drugs. Yup, With a fame and fortune came huge stress, alongside a whole lot of other psychological issues.

Wait a minute! He had Gamer's mind so he didn't need to worry about. His abilities were really broken.

"Stand still you bastard!" Hayate stood up, rubbing his bruised knuckles. He accidently ended up punching the wall when Ben jumped out of the way and it really hurt.

"Seriously Senpai! Do you really think in the history of battles anyone had ever listened to a command like that, especially from other combatant." Ben laughed heartily as the senior dashed towards him with everything he had got. He threw out a series of nasty jabs, left , right, feint, left, right but the gamer just dodged and blocked each and every one of his blows without even breaking a sweat. All while keeping his nose millimeters closer to the older fighter, almost taunting him. He was in close range to exchange hits but he refused to dish out at all. Hayato shook his head. His face turning red due to anger and exhaustion. He was now almost running dry on both oxygen and stamina. His cloths now completely soaked with sweat and at this point he was more of stumbling rather than attacking.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, he gathered last of his stamina and attempted to nail Ben with a sharp roundhouse kick across the face. While at first appearing to be caught off guard, Ben swayed back to full ninety degree, dodge it at the last second in with gravity defying agility. Intending to take advantage of the situation, a friend of Hayate jumped in with a nasty hook, However Ben sprung back from his previous position, leaping over both of their shoulders with extreme ease.

"Hayate Sarashiki!" An authoritative voice called out, revealing to be the principal of Kuoh High School, " Just what do you think you are doing?"

"He started it." The wrestler shakily pointed an accusing finger towards the Gamer, Ben Tennyson, An all around quiet upstanding student.

"No He didn't." A melodious voice rang out. Ben's eyes widened in amusement and disbelief as a pretty girl around his age stepped out from inside the crowd. She was none other than the well known celebrity of this High school, Akeno Himejima. She stopped near Ben, giving him a dazzling smile which could have even melted the icebergs. " Tennyson-san was just trying to reason with the brute because he wanted to beat up Hyoudou-san with a baseball bat. He has been nothing but polite and courteous towards the seniors, even though they don't deserve it in the slightest bit."

"I understand your frustrations with Perverted Trio." The principal threw a dark glare towards Issei, who just pulled his collar with a nervous laugh, "But we have a system in place to punish them and they _do_ get punished. However what you just attempted to do here is..just unacceptable beyond any means. This academy is not run by Yakuza rules. I will talk to the University staff and make sure you will get suspension for this."

"He was trying to protect this creep who has been harrassing my girl. I got a match coming up, You can't pull this crap on me."

" Ufufu~ You better watch your mouth Mister if you don't want your suspension to turn into expulsion." Akeno giggled, dangerously narrowing her pink eyes at the complaining seniors. For some strange reason Ben couldn't figure out, The guys in front of him actually started cowering in fear and left immediately without muttering a single word.

 _"She sure has a way with the people."_ Ben muttered under his breath. He turned to Issei and he was quite surprised to see the title flying over his head

 **Issei Hyoudou, Lvl 14, Pawn of Sitri Heiress**

 _What sort of title is that? And who the hell is Sitri Heiress? Does it have something to do with the Red Dragon thingy Souna was talking about?_

Before he could ponder on these thoughts though, He was interrupted by an elderly voice , belonging to none other than the Principal of Kuoh Academy himself.

"Those were some moves Mister Tennyson and I can see that you could have done a lot of damage to him. However you chose to abide by the rules and just tried not to get hit. With such physical capabilities, would you like to become the captain of Boxing Club or may be Trekking Club?"

"Ah well, I am not the hardcore competitive type so I will surely suck big time as being a leader." Ben replied with a polite bow. The principal nodded , smiling towards the promising athlete in return and turned to the crowd.

"Everyone go back to your classes, The show is over. " He said in a serious tone. Issei bowed in gratitude towards Ben, He was about to offer some of his most precious porn stash to him in gratitude but then realized that the grumpy old man was still standing there and he never liked him much anyways. He didn't want him to give more reasons for chewing him out. Besides he had duties to perform for Student Council anyways which he joined just a few days back. Becoming a devil underling of Sona Sitri, A High class devil residing in the Kuoh academy with the alias "Souna Shiotori" . Why did he do that? Well to become a harem king of course. Besides Student Council was filled with gorgeous bombshells of all shapes and size. It seemed like even someone like him could catch a lucky break sometimes.

 _"Damn! I am still so weak. I gotta start some training. I can't depend on Ben-senpai to bail me out everytime. "_ Letting out a sigh in frustration Issei started walking towards his classes.

Eventually the crowd dispersed, Only leaving Akeno, Ben and the Principal behind.

The Principal turned to Ben and he was about to speak something, However before he could do so, The beautiful dark haired girl standing besides him waved her hand. Ben didn't know what did she do. Was that some sort of sign language or magic? He didn't know but it was effective. Principal Kurosaki left immediately, without uttering a single word.

Akeno turned towards the boy. Something about him screamed different today and that wasn't just because of the moves he pulled while dealing with those seniors. It seemed as if he gained a sort of exotic appeal. She had seen young Tennyson in her class before and he seemed pretty plain to her. There was nothing extraordinary good about him and there was also nothing extraordinary bad about him. He was a scrawny athlete and part of an overall lackluster Kuoh Soccer Team. He was by all means just a plain average human. But not today. Today she just couldn't keep her eyes off him. No matter how much she tried to.

The first thing she noticed were his brown messy hair, which were sitting on the top of a really well defined face. His face was richly defined, having just the right amount of fat. His muscular chest bulged against the white shirt of Kuoh Academy uniform. Damn! Were those eight packs or something like that? Even Kiba didn't have abs like that and he was probably one of the most fit male individuals she ever came across. Then she finally got to his eyes, the intense emerald orbs which almost seared through her soul. She can't help but feel one thing.

" _He has really transformed into a man amongst the boys of this academy since I last saw him."_

"Thanks for bailing me out, Himejima-san!" Ben offered his greetings with a smile. Instead of responding though, She scooted closer to him, sliding a finger down the length of his arm, her hand rested over his torso. Ben dumbfounded as a ferocious blush crept over her face. The way her eyes widened in surprise suggested that she was impressed. However Ben felt a bit uncomfortable as both of her hands roamed around his clearly visible abs, Trying to squeeze them with as much force as she could possibly apply.

"Himejima-san?" Ben blinked in confusion.

Akeno stepped away from him giving muttering _"Damn!_ " under her breath, biting her knuckles on the hand, her eyes still glued at Ben's torso area.

"Ufufu~ I must say Ben-kun! You are not what I have expected for the last couple of years. There is clearly more to you then meeting the eyes." She giggled mischievously, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulders.

"Well, What can I say Himejima-san, I have always loved shoving people's expectations through their asses." Ben scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

This is Akeno Himejima , right? The famous beauty of Kuoh Academy who hated all men and didn't think they were worth her time.

 _The power flowing inside of him, It's a Dragon. No not an ordinary Dragon. This aura belongs to One of the Great Five and that's not the end of it. His own aura is pretty intense, rivaling that of Tsubaki Shinra, Sitri-sama's Queen. He is definitely not some ordinary Sacred Gear holder. He is something else entirely_

"Ara..Ara...There is a very good friend of mine, who I feel , I would really like to see, In your own words " Her expectations shoved through her ass." Akeno laughed, giving him a look resembling that of a land shark circling her prey and before Ben could understand what was going on inside her mind, She had already taken hold of his arm, putting it in between her rather well developed assets.

 _Huh, What the hell is happening right now?_

"I hope we can be really good friends from now on, Ben~kun!" She said in a sing song voice before starting to drag him towards the classroom. It was that moment Ben got to see the title flying over her head and that really wasn't a very pleasant experience

 **Akeno Himejima, Lvl 42, The Ultimate Sadist**

 _"I am really starting to miss the days when famous beauties ignored me like a plague, just like they do to every other student."_ Ben muttered under his breath as multiple windows started floating in front of his eyes

 **Quest Accomplished**

 **Clock is ticking**

 **Primary Objective: Reach Kuoh Academy in time , Completed! Gained 340 Exp! Gained 1000 Yen**

 **Secondary Objective: Save Hyoudou Issei from getting beaten by the wrestling team of Kuoh University, Completed! Gained 800 Exp! 3000 Yen! Gained Reputation with Student Council**

 **Secret Objective: Impress the Vice president of Occult Research Club Akeno Himejima by defeating the wrestling team without laying a single finger on them, Completed! Gained 6300 Exp! 9000 Yen**

 **Gained Reputation with Occult Research Club, Occult Research Club is now accessible.**

 **Congratulations! You have now unlocked a new ally, Akeno Himejima! Gained 250 Exp (You and Akeno now get 33% increase in Defence, Damage dealt and attacking speed, 15% reduction to damage received while fighting alongside each other)**

 **Congratulations! Your level has increased by 1**

 **...xxxxxx...xxxxxxxxxxxx...**


	8. Chapter 8

"I really owe you a big one for this, Mitsuko-chan!"

Issei always liked to complain how Ben didn't arrive to his rescue most times a mob of angry females were chasing him, That wasn't a complete truth. Ben had overall good relationship with the Tennis Club captain and the Judo club captain because all three of them used to attend the same self defense classes. He had little to no interactions with Kendo club so he couldn't do anything about divine punishment coming from them. Now Ben wasn't really sympathetic about Issei and his friends getting beaten up by a outraged female students. He thought they deserved it for the most part . However beatings tended to get a bit too extreme after a couple of rounds. And while Issei and the rest of perverted trio were very much resilient and driven, all for very wrong reasons and in really creepy areas. They weren't the most athletic individuals. Anyone with little to no martial arts training could easily take on them and beat the crap out of them without batting an eyelash. It wouldn't hurt to make sure at least they weren't damaged beyond repair.

It was really stupid of him to save Issei even for those instances when he bailed him out but he couldn't just help himself. That's how he was wired anyways. But at least for today, he thought that after getting in trouble for his unusual habits, Issei might just calm down for a while. But as it turned out, He indeed underestimated Issei's resilience. Right around the time he was about to get himself some nice food from Kuoh's state of art cafeteria. However before he could reach the counter and decide about the sort of pasta he wanted to have today, From the corner of his eyes , He saw Issei being chased down by an extremely angry mob mostly belonging to Judo club. Ben couldn't help but facepalm, here he thought he was going to have some semblance of peace and normalcy after losing that weird Himejima girl (Who really gave him some scary vibes) . It didn't take a genius for him to figure out what would have happened. The perverted Trio went to the girls locker room for a quick peek and make a quick getaway immediately afterwards. To be honest, they would have been pretty alright if they actually followed through their smash and grab plan like a certain number of people (As ridiculous as it appeared to be, Perverted trio weren't the only peeping toms in the entire Kuoh academy). Unfortunately being the insatiable fiends they were, They ended up spending a lot more time than they were supposed to and they got caught. Matsuda and Motohama who were surprisingly quite a bit better at hiding and running, easily managed to get away , leaving Issei to face all the heat.

Though Ben had to make some sort visible effort into chasing all of them down (Though it wasn't much as Ben did know pretty much every corner of that building by heart), He managed to talk down the girls and cut his punishment short thanks to his rather cordial relationship with the Judo club president.

"It's alright Tennyson-kun , Feel free to stop by the club. May be have a spar like good old days." The Judo club captain smiled at Ben as she waved him a goodbye.

"I must say, you really have nerves of steel when it comes to peeking. I sometimes think your determination would have looked really cool if it you weren't such a creep, Oppai-baka!" Ben let out a huge sigh, rolling his eyes in mild irritation.

"Ha! You know me Ben, A couple of beatings can never stop the Future Harem King from enjoying the sights of heavenly bodies of women." Issei remarked with a rather proud grin, patting himself on the back

"Seriously Issei, You gotta learn to be more quick at this. You almost got jumped two times in a single day." A familiar voice said causing two of them to turn around. That was none other Matsuda and Motohama. Issei's partners in crime. They were safely hidden behind a shade while the girls were chasing Issei down but now as the threat was over, there was no further need to stay alarmed.

"And now you got rescued by Ben-senpai two times in a day, must be a record." Motohama let out a chuckle as he and Matsuda mildly teased Issei about his really pitiful situation.

"Damn it guys! Not only you two hogged the peeping hole the whole time, you also ditched me at the worst time possible." Issei frowned, grumbling disgruntledly in misery.

"What can we do about it President Issei? You are just having a run of bad luck." Matsuda laughed heartily, patting Issei on his shoulders.

"All I want to do is lay my hands on a nice rack before my time at Kuoh ends but I just keep getting cockblocked." Issei sighed in irritation.

"Geez, You guys are totally beyond redemption!" Ben muttered under his breath, rubbing tiredly on his forehead. Needless to say, After having quite a chaotic day, Ben felt quite a bit distracted. The fact didn't help that he had literally zero interest in Teacher's rantings. Considering that he basically went through every single equation in his textbook and practise book, and she won't be able to come up anything in decades that he can't answer. He let out a huge sigh. Increasing his INT and WIS did wonders for him but even that couldn't make his subjects interesting. And even with assistance from Gamer's Mind, He just couldn't focus on the nightmare called Chemistry. However he could still pretty much follow which went throughout the classes and recall every single detail as if he had been watching a really awesome action blockbuster in high definition instead of a boring lecture conducted by a sleepy teacher.

While his physical stats had increased a bit thanks to the recent events, His mental stats took somewhat of a hit( Though not quite as much as he initially thought at first , Increase from level up should have most likely made up for that) But eventually, He decided to put one point each in STR, VIT and DEX, 6 points in the INT , 8 points in his WIS and remaining ones he spent on his LUK. Considering the fact that even though LUK seemed like a bit too much of random stat to completely rely on, Increasing it by a bit, now that he could, it wasn't going to hurt. He was trying to keep an all around balanced build, as long as he possibly could. Usually while gaming he quickly decided about what path he wanted to take and distributed his attribute points accordingly. He also took the skills he could acquire in the game and the late game difficulties into consideration. But this was his real life so the decision wasn't that easy to make. Despite of all that confusion, he was doing pretty good on his own. At least that's what he liked to think. Unfortunately, distributing his points was the least of his concerns.

As the day passed, he came to notice how several people around his school had this really strange vibe about them. Of course the weird titles and ridiculously higher levels flying over their heads was a big giveaway, He just didn't know what or they were to be exact but they were definitely not humans. He was damn sure about that fact. He couldn't describe it. While he didn't think a bunch of high school students as murderous psychopath and his **[Danger Sense]** didn't get activated in their presence, He just couldn't shrug off this weird ominous feeling settling inside his chest. Suddenly Ben heard the perverted trio gasp causing him to turn around. Raising an eyebrow out of curiosity, quickly following his line of sight , he eventually came to notice the ever so gorgeous Rias Gremory. Standing over at the window of the old school building. Well there was no denying about her beauty. Her long flowing crimson hair and blue eyes with a hint of green in them gave her quite an exotic aura amongst the population of Kuoh academy. However that wasn't something Ben had been pondering upon.

 **Rias Gremory, Lvl 46, Crimson Haired Ruin Princess**

" _Don't tell me...She is even four levels higher than Akeno and the student council president. "_ Ben shook his head, completely baffled after looking at the screen floating over her head which indicate her high level and a fancy title (Which Ben had no freaking idea about). He did recall hearing the rumors that her family came from Europe and how she took charge of the Occult research club a few months before the beginning of previous term. But realizing that she was part of the supernatural community herself was quite something. At this point it was hard to say who or what exactly she was. She could be a youkai, an angel, a fallen angel , a vampire or even an alien for crying out loud. If all those creatures from myths, legends and folklores were real, why can't be aliens?

It would be really cool to have aliens around like other versions of him did in their respective universes. Anyways, that was all up to the speculation but there was one thing for sure. Rias Gremory and her friends, They surely weren't ordinary human beings.

Besides, anything else was hard to tell as the **[Observe]** didn't work on beings who were too much high levelled compared to him.

"She is so friggin hot..." Matsuda muttered, a dreamy look appearing on his face like Issei and Matsuda. Ben didn't exactly disagree with him but he was a bit distracted about numbers on the informative screen floating over her head.

"I agree. She is definitely like a supermodel. How come you creeps never ever tried to peep on her? Not even once in the last two years. That's really like a world record." Ben narrowed down his eyes, holding his chin thoughtfully.

"We are perverts but there are some boundaries even we won't dare to cross." Motohama slowly pushed up his glasses, starting to speak in serious tone out of nowhere.

"Oh yeah, Kendo club is one thing but if you go after her...you will be killed. " Matsuda paled in horror.

"Well that's really surprising, coming from you of all people." Ben leaned against wall with a momentary yawn

"She has deep connections with the board and probably even have ties with the government. Besides she is a de...I mean if you peek at her you will be hunted down like a rabid animal by boys, girls and the faculties alike. Forget about being expelled, you will be straight up jailed. I really like oppai but that doesn't mean I am insane." Issei added in a frightful tone. He recently received some words of wisdom from Souna about the people he shouldn't be messing with, No need to say Akeno and Rias were on the top of that list. Especially after learning about _what_ they actually were, he decided that it was best for his health and sanity to stick with "safe" girls.

"Well, It's not like you guys would have seen much. It's Occult research club. Not anything like Bikini club or Strip club." Ben joked a bit, nervously scratching the back of his head, Trying not to think about how this outwardly normal looking academy was filled with scary superpowered girls.

"That's a great idea. There should be a stripping club." Motohama pumped his fists, a fire burning into his eyes.

"Let's start one by ourselves." Issei responded with an overly enthusiastic smile and just like that a heated discussion began between the "group" of friends who shared relatively same passions and hobbies.

 _"You guys really have a short attention span."_ Ben mumbled but before he could join their conversation with a witty remark of his own...

 ** _Beware Hatchling! You have sparked the interest of some very powerful people_**

Ben tensed up, widening his eyes. He then looked around swiftly, wondering where that voice came from. It definitely didn't come from perverted trio, as far as he knew voice mimicry really wasn't their cup of tea. Ben blinked as a blue screen popped up in front of him.

 **[Midgardsormr, Also referred as The World Serpent has requested to join your party]**

 **Do you accept?(Y/N)**

 **Note: This screen will keep popping up until you accept and once you reach Lvl 22, [Midgardsormr] automatically gets added as an ally**

Ben shook his head. He still didn't know what to do about that right now. What the hell did World Serpent had to do with all that? This was kinda confusing. Of course he was going to press Y as sooner or later, he was going to end up having the Midgardsormr as a party member. But right now, he didn't want to rush things. Especially with how chaotic and stressful his life had recently turned into. It would be better if he dealt with this dilemma once he got back home.

"Alright then Senpai, I gotta go. I have some work to do." Issei spoke up with a smile

"You won't be watching Magical Girl Milky Spiral with us." Matsuda dumbfounded, apparently shocked by Issei's revelation, So was Matsuda. And Ben could see why. Once their classes were over, The three of them always gathered up at Motohama's house and watched ecchi shows together. It was sort of their own perverted friendship ritual. In a way, that came off as quite a shock to those two.

"I actually got a new job a few days ago, which pays pretty well." Issei scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"What sort of job?" Motohama interrogated further.

"It's...a delivery job." Issei paused for a moment before responding.

Ben narrowed down his eyes as he detected a lie coming. Issei was usually very forthcoming about everything. Whether it was about his perversion or the everlasting desire of becoming the harem king. He never shy away from sharing the details about his life. But today, He was definitely hiding something, which Ben personally found quite a bit weird. For someone like Issei to be so defensive about something that he would resort to lying, It meant that matter was really important.

However, at the same time that was none of his business. Besides he already had his hands full with the whole Kokabiel and Excalibur fiasco. He didn't care what was Issei's deal with student council, as long as he stayed out of trouble.

Ben just put a hand on Issei's head. He then ruffled his hair before commenting.

"Sure thing kiddo. Everyone has to keep wolf from the door. Even Highschool students like us."

Issei grinned happily at Ben's acceptance. Which wasn't big surprise considering the pervert did respect him to a rather disturbing degree. Motohama and Matsuda wanted to investigate further but once they noticed Ben cracking his knuckles, They lost all of their courage and forget the matter altogether.

Eventually the three of them decided to head out, leaving Ben all to himself. What the perverted trio had told him managed to pique his interest, An entire building just for a single club consisting of four people.

A club whose purpose was to research stuff like paranormal and dark arts. He already knew about the high levels of Akeno and Rias at this moment. Closing his eyes, Ben took a long breath.

 _They can come in handy in solving this mystery._

He entered inside the building through the wooden door, from what he could guess after seeing Rias Gremory on that window, The club must be located above the second floor. Before he could take the stairs, he heard the footsteps approaching.

"Tennyson-kun! " A melodious voice called out to him. Stopping in his tracks, Ben looked over his shoulders only to see the dark haired girl with purple eyes walking towards him. Her hair was tied in a long ponytail and she had an impressive bosom. She was none other than his gorgeous classmate Akeno Himejima. The first supernatural individual he encountered in the Kuoh Academy.

"What a pleasant surprise!" Akeno said with a smile as she walked towards him, " I didn't expect to see you here at all."

"Actually I wanted to talk with you about certain issues..." Ben cleared his throat before speaking again. Akeno blinked in confusion, she was definitely caught off guard by hearing this unusual request from Ben.

"Sure!" Akeno replied in a polite tone.

"Since last few days, I have been dealing with some issues which needs Supernatural explanation." Ben spoke out in a rather strained voice.

"Does that have anything to do with the increase in your physical abilities?" Akeno raised an eyebrow.

"Uhmm...yeah...partially. But that's not just it. Have you heard about the man murdered in the park today?" Ben continued, albeit rather hesitantly. He didn't want to reveal his connection with Yasaka. Not yet. But before he met Yasaka and informed her about this situation, he needed to have someone on his side. He couldn't deal with this entire issue on his own so it seemed wise to talk to people who knew way more about this three faction fiasco than he did. And Akeno Himejima was most likely one of them.

"Yeah."

"I actually ran into him today in the morning, moments before he was murdered. You gotta believe me but an individual with five pairs of crow wings stabbed him with some sort laser like weapon and threw him on the ground. Before he died, he told me that he was an exorcist working for Archangel Gabriel and the fallen angels have stolen the Excaliburs. I have this strange ability to heal people but that didn't work on him and ended up fixing his dead body instead." Ben spoke out with a hint of panic, hoping that she wouldn't laugh at his crazy tale.

Well, She actually didn't laugh at hearing this. Instead, Ben could feel that a switch was flipped. All of a sudden, her laid back and carefree demeanor changed to an extremely serious and intense one.

"That is true. Police found no blood or any sort of injuries on that man's body. Perhaps that was due to your abilities."

"Wait a minute. Do you actually believe I have super powers?" Ben dumbfounded, not expecting her to believe him that quickly.

"Your aura is really strange and quite intense. I knew that you were going through something, I just didn't know what or why." She smiled, patting him on his shoulders. She added in a sincere tone "But you must have a word with President."

"I dunno. Is it possible for someone like me to have an audience with No 1 idol of the Kuoh academy?" Ben stretched his arms with a yawn as he leaned against the ceiling.

"It's not a big deal if you have friends in high places." Akeno giggled in response.

"Fine than, Himejima-san! lead the way." Ben remarked with a smile.

"Honorifics are unnecessary Tennyson-kun. I don't mind if you call me Akeno. But try to keep formalities when we are in front of the presidents." Akeno said with a smile.

"Sure thing, Akeno." Ben nodded.

And just like that, they started moving towards the mysterious Occult Research Club.

...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...xxxxxxx...

 _"I really hope this doesn't turn out to be some sort of ambush."_

Ben said to himself before activating **[Rookie Kitsune Mode]** just in case anything turned sour.

The only super powered individual he encountered before was Yasaka and she was pretty much calm and collected. She liked to tease people every now and then but Ben couldn't see her abusing her massive strength bring chaos and destruction upon this world. He didn't what the people in ORC were like. He wasn't sure what was going to happen. The only reason he took this chance was to get some answers which he couldn't have otherwise. Even though Ben tried not to show it, The whole haunted house theme Occult Research Club had started to creep him out. The building was completely dark from inside out, with no other sources of light other than the sunlight shining through the confined space of windows. Apart from that, the place was this clean. Not even single speck of dust. To be honest, he expected to run into some bugs and / or spider webs while he was walking with Akeno.

However, The place turned out to be quite well maintained. Even the desks and furniture (which appeared to be quite old but very artistic) placed in the empty rooms were properly arranged.

Eventually, They passed through a door which was heavily locked through the usage of chains. Not only that yellow tapes similar to that of police used completely covered the frame of that door. Ben gulped, his heart skipped a bit once he read the sign placed there.

 **Do not Enter.**

 ** _"My My, I never expected to run into the king of fomorians himself. "_** All of a sudden, he felt an ominous pressure building inside of him as he looked up. It was as if the presence inside him was warning him about something.

"I wouldn't go in if I were you." Ben snapped his head on the left to see Akeno looking at him over his shoulder, "The club is this way." Ben glanced at the door for one last moment. He didn't want to see whatever creature which was locked inside that. She led him towards a rather beautifully crafted wooden door which appeared to be non locked unlike the previous one he stopped by. A sign over it said, **Occult Research Club**

"President, I have a guest with me." A honeyed voice came through the door."Ah your new friend! What a coincidence! I was about to invite him to the club tomorrow. Please come in."

 _"What the hell? How did she know about me?"_ Ben asked to himself, still a bit shocked about Rias' knowledge about him being her. However, Akeno opened the door and they stepped in.

The room behind the doors turned out to be quite the enigma. It was completely dark apart from a number of several well placed candlesticks illuminating the entire place. Ben had to admit though, despite the room being quite artistic and containing various high end stuff, The atmosphere was really creepy. And the huge magic designed circle which covered most of the floor didn't help. The main seating arrangement was two couches on the side of a rather fancy table which he felt appeared directly from the victorian era. His eyes also darted towards a set of doors which probably led to another room. In the far corner of his eyes, he noticed what appeared to be a bathtub with a shower curtain closing off a section of the room.

Logically, from what he learned about the pipes and plumbing by working with his Grand father during his summer vacations, It seemed nearly impossible to get all the connections in that particular corner.

Then again, Logic was hard to apply when magic was involved.

"Welcome to Occult Research Club, Tennyson-kun. It's nice to officially meet you." Ben looked over in the direction of the voice. It was none other than another one from the two great onee-samas of Kuoh, Rias Gremory.

The red haired beauty was currently sitting on rather fancy looking desk which was placed just before the far wall. She gestured him to take a seat as Akeno went inside to prepare some tea. Ben sat down on one of the couches.

"Pleasure is mine Gremory-san! Sorry that I didn't get the chance to introduce myself." He said with a polite bow

"It's alright. Before we go any further, I would like to talk to you about a certain power residing within you." Rias continued as she stood up from her seat and leaned against the desk with her arms crossed.

"Power residing with in me? I don't think you are getting why I am here..." Ben tried to look confused as much as he possibly could.

"From what I gather you have awakened a power inside of you, which is quite different from the nature of the sacred gears. This power is different from an angel, fallen angel, or even a devil. But after working on my sensory spell for a while and looking into some past records of this club, I found a match. You are not a normal human. You are a hybrid. Part human and part nine tailed fox. If I am not wrong, you have awakened your Youkai heritage." " She said with a confident smile

"Look, I do have some unusual abilities but I am just a human...nothing less..nothing more." Ben responded with a casual smile, trying his hardest to not to panic. However, Rias seemed quite sure of herself. Her hands glowed for a moment and a small magical circle appeared in front of him. Before he could understand what was going on, His normal human looking eyes were replaced with the animalistic slitted ones. His ears became pointed and pointed upwards, while nine burning tails emerging behind his back. Making a note to herself she flicked her wrist, another magical circle appeared and his new form was replaced by the previous human one.

Her familiar did inform her about the Fox empress of Kyoto visiting the town with her daughter. She knew that it was going to take a lot of time for her daughter to grow up and actually assume the throne of the leader of all Youkai. She was certainly looking for some options which was a pretty known fact. Nine tail foxes were the youkai of the highest order and most of them went extinct in the great war. There were rumors of several hybrids still being around. The only reason she might have agree to come to this city all by herself was to possibly search for a suitable candidate who can keep her empire stable at least till her daughter grew up. The next day, Ben Tennyson started displaying all these abilities. Not only that, he also possessed this unique fiery aura about him which only a Kyuubi was capable of emitting.

There was no doubt. Ben Tennyson was a Nine tailed fox.

"Do not panic Ben Tennyson. I am not going to do anything to you." She raised her hand in a calming manner, trying to assure him that he was safe here. She added with a kind smile, "Tell me what do you know about the three factions from bible?"

"If you mean by the war between the Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils...I know that much." Ben began with a smile, Now he felt sorta relieved. Rias didn't know that he talked with Yasaka in regards of that subject. It would be safe to just probably make up something.

"Y-you know about that?" Rias asked, quite a bit surprised after hearing that.

"My cousin Gwen is a huge fan of anything and everything related to Occult so she told me about that once when we used to be in the middle school." Ben said as he scratched his head, he added with a sigh "She told me that Churches focus on Orphans, raising them to become perfect warriors who can fight for their cause. Devils make contracts with the humans and gets nourishment from their greed, They also have some ways to transform an individual into their race. It's not really specified how though. And Fallen Angels try to tempt Angels and humans with special abilities on their side to destroy Devils and heaven. For the longest time, I thought this was just one of some silly bedtime stories. After what I saw today, I don't think I can be too sure about the figures from mythology not being real."

"Buchou, he had seen a Cadre murdering an exorcist from the church." Akeno finally interjected, passing some tea to him as she took her seat, "The exorcist claimed on his deathbed that he was carrying fragments of excaliburs."

"I see. It seems that those nasty buggers are up to no good. I think we should inform the other group and report this incident to the archduke. " Rias shook her head, taking a sip of her tea, "Also, make sure to keep this under the wraps, at least for now! You know how Kiba is when it comes to _that_."

"I will keep that in mind Buchou." Akeno nodded in response.

"Amongst the three faction, where exactly do you belong? or you are something entirely else. Like fairy , elf , alien, vampire, sorceress etc." Ben raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Oh, I totally forgot. So silly of me!" Rias giggled , returning back to her previous cutesy tone, " I will be frank with you Tennyson-kun. This club is nothing but a front. It's supposed to look like some sort of hobby but all members of this club including Yuuto-kun and Koneko-chan who are busy running some errands, are devils.

Ben froze for a moment. Unable to believe that he had been surrounded by the devils for the longest time. That was really lot to take in but it did make some sense right now. Kuoh was under the complete jurisdiction of Devils, Yasaka confirmed the fact herself so it was highly unlikely for him to run into an angel . Grabbing his cup, Ben took a sip of the tea.

"I understand that a cold war is going on right under my nose and a large portion of those crazy mythological stories is real. Now let's get to the point. What do I do next?"

"Fallen Angels are not a big fan of Youkai. They may not hate as much as they do with us but if they figured out you possess the power of a Nine tails, They will definitely come after you. It's just a matter of how and when." Akeno explained as a matter of fact.

"Well, I might have a permanent solution for your problems" Rias began with a bright smile, "Tennyson-kun, let me explain to you about the concept of evil pieces and peerage system."

 **So I have decided to make some changes in order to make the story flow better. I hope you like it and I feel that this suits Ben's Gamer personality more than the previous version did.**

 **I hope you enjoy it :)**


	9. Chapter 9

"Let me make this very clear to you, Devils were truly the personification of evil and the enemy of God and mankind when the war between the three factions took place. However, over the course of a millennia we evolved. A lot of things changed in our society and the change was so great that it resulted in a civil war within the Underworld. The devils with new ideals won and managed to force those with old ideals out of the Underworld. However thanks to all these events, Countless devils ended up losing their lives and our number took a huge hit. It was a pretty serious issue cause even though the war had been called off, Angels led by Biblical God and Fallen Angels led by the organization Grigory , still wanted to wipe us out. So Ajuka Beelzebub, An Ultimate class devil from the newer generation who went on to become a Maou, introduced the evil piece system. A set of magical artifacts which were offered to high class devils, helped a great deal in replenishing our numbers. For this reason they are also referred as Devil's pieces." The crimson haired beauty suddenly sat on the top of her desk, her legs crossed over while giving him an alluring smile.

Ben gulped for a moment. Was she trying to tempt him? His first instinct was to just leave from this place right then, that's what his gut told him. It was too creepy for his taste and filled with a lot more estrogen than he could handle. Rias and Akeno were undoubtedly beautiful but it was the kind of beautiful which set Ben on edge. It was unearthly beauty and the kind specifically applied while snatching the interests of men with less self control and experience. If he met them before the adventure with Paradox and Ben Prime and he didn't have these Gamer powers he has now, He would have surely fallen for such trap. Unfortunately for them, he had gotten a lot smarter lately.

She had a plan, That much was obvious but at this moment, he didn't have any other options but to play along.

"Hmm...that's interesting. So how did that invention helped your society with number issues?" Ben feigned his interest, not wanting to let the ladies know that he was now on to them.

" You see these "chess" pieces have the ability to change the genetic makeup of an individual making them far more powerful than they originally were, as well as significantly increasing their life span because the devils live far longer even more so than most supernaturals. The evil piece system was based on the game chess, thus they created pieces with five special traits which consisted of the Queen, Rook, Bishop , Knight and Pawn . With the help of these pieces a high class devil such as myself can revive the people of another species as devils and have them as servants. On other hand there is a ranking system amongst us Devils. It's called peerage. The place you were born and the family you were born into plays a huge part into that. As you can guess, I have one myself. However, Reincarnated devils can also work their way up and once they become powerful enough, they are also granted their own peerage and they can easily achieve great wealth and gain massive influence in the underworld, even get a harem of their own. All in all it is a really fun idea if you are ever open to try it. I still have a few slots remaining in my peerage." She concluded with an inviting smile

"Servant? Peerage? " Ben sharply narrowed down his eyes at hearing this. Granted he was not aware of the customs /norms of supernatural world and how things worked in the underworld, but the way she spoke it so casually was starting to make him uncomfortable... Are you trying to enslave me by taking my souls?"

"No...not like that." Rias let out a panicked tone, acting flustered for the first time since they began this conversation, " The purpose of this system isn't to create slaves , it's to increase our numbers. There might be few who abuse the system but more often than not they are punished harshly." Narrowing down his eyes Ben stared down at his lap, clenching his fists together. Did he walk into a trap by coming down here? Even with his abilities there wasn't much he could do against such high leveled and well experienced individuals. Granted, he got lucky while fighting against that Roberto guy but he wasn't a fool to expect a miracle to happen every time he got into a trouble. Life wasn't that fair, even to the likes of superheroes like his heroic alternate earth counterpart Ben Prime.

"Still...it sounds a bit too much convenient to me. What's the point of having money and power...if you end up losing your own free will in the end. Besides you guys are devils, alright? ..who can stop you from using the people for whatever purpose by making them all these big promises and then just set them aside like a broken toy. After all Devils are inherently selfish beings ." Ben remarked in a serious tone.

"I know you don't trust us yet but believe me when I say. President is really kind to me and all her other servants. She cared for us when all of us were in need." Akeno spoke out in a defiant tone, her voice filled with nothing but loyalty and respect for Rias.

Rias , who had been sitting there quiet for a moment, suddenly leaned back with a sigh, her eyes now being covered under crimson bangs, "All of my servants are very precious to me and I would never do anything to hurt them, or think about tossing them aside...not even in my wildest dream. I see my peerage not as mere subordinates but my family and comrades. They are the people I treasure , no matter what." The crimson haired devil declared in a confident tone. Putting a hand to her chest, she stared in Ben's emerald orbs. Her stern, strong gaze meeting his cautious and analytic one.

"Well, Gremory-san you do sound pretty convincing. I will take your word for it, _at least for the time being._ " Ben closed his eyes muttering the last part inwardly, taking a long breath as he rubbed his neck slightly.

"So, You want me to be your servant, Is this why you have told me about the whole peerage thing?"

"Whoa, hold your horses Ben-kun. " Rias held her hand up, "While I certainly wouldn't mind recruiting you as a member of my clan, that's not the reason why I am explaining you about all these terms. Current situation between three factions is rather tricky and in today's world, power like yours is literally up for grabs. I wish it wasn't like this but we don't have much choice in the matter. But there is one thing for sure, People will either try to recruit you for their cause or kill you out of fear due to the powerful dragon residing in your right arm. " She added in a dead serious tone

"Dragon in my right arm?" Ben dumbfounded, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"She means you are in possession of a really powerful sacred gear, a very irregular but overwhelming power that's bestowed upon certain humans." Akeno explained further giving him a concerned look "Being part nine tailed fox, and at the same time housing a one of the great dragon king , that's not really an everyday occurrence in our world. That's why you are bound to spark the attention from some not so friendly individuals."

"Is it that big of a deal?" Ben raised an eyebrow

"HA HA HA! I already like this guy." Rias suddenly burst out laughing while Akeno just deadpanned in response giving him an "Are you kidding me, Doofus?" look Gwen used to give him whenever he had trouble understanding a certain science project they were working together as kids.

"Did I say anything funny, Gremory-san?" The young Tennyson blinked in confusion, feeling like a fish out of water.

"Being a freaking nine tailed fox is already a big deal Ben-kun. They are referred as Youkais of the highest calibre. Once they are at their highest stage of power, which is potent enough for them be worshiped and renowned as gods by humans and monsters alike, their destructive abilities rivalling or in some cases exceeding that of Ultimate class beings." Rias stopped laughing and got back to the conversation " Dragons are creatures that represent power. As such, in all ages, Dragons are admired, respected, and feared by all. And your arm is housing one of the great five dragon kings, a group of five unique Dragons with high destructive powers, rivaling those of Ultimate-Class Devils or even the Four Great Satans . Hack, combining those two together, if pushed into right direction and given that you put a certain amount of efforts, you can become strong enough to even kill a god, an archangel or one of the satans themselves if you want to."

"I have never heard about someone who isn't a fully fledged human through and through to receive a sacred gear. Especially one of the particularly strong ones." Akeno spoke out of curiosity.

"Hard to say Akeno, There is still a lot of mystery regarding the nature of sacred gears. I don't think even Ajuka-sama can answer this question" Rias replied with a thoughtful smile and quickly turned to Ben, " You have lot of untapped potential and I am definitely more than interested in seeing how far you can go. I can give you the instruction you need to help your latent talents bloom. Help you out in regards of sacred gear and properly introduce you to the supernatural realm as I know it. " She leaned in putting a hand on his shoulder, " I feel like you should have an idea about what type of world you are going to be living in from now on. Whether you decide to be a member of my peerage or not...that's entirely up to you. "

"So basically what you are saying is, I am a part of this, whether I like it or not." Ben let out a frustrated sigh.

"I am sorry Ben-kun , There isn't much we can do about that. " Rias responded in a voice filled with regret and kindness as she moved closer and put a comforting hand on his cheek, "I apologize for putting you on the spot today but I promise you, you are not alone in this, we have your back."

" I see...thanks for your generosity Gremory-san! I had a lot of stress building up ever since all these strange events started happening in my life..." He nodded with a respectful bow, "Talking with you and Akeno-san took a load off my mind. I will be able to think much more clearly from now on."

The redhead devil heiress just giggled in response and patted on his shoulders in a friendly manner.

"Honorifics are unnecessary Ben-kun , I don't mind if you call me Rias but try to keep the formalities when we are not in private. "

"Alright then, Rias! May I speak honestly for a moment?"

"Of course Ben-kun! You are amongst friends, no need to be so reserved." Akeno spoke out with a kind smile, trying to encourage the young gamer.

"Let me be frank, I am without a doubt not the best person to have this sort of special powers." Ben said with a sigh causing both Rias and Akeno to look at him in surprise, "I don't know anything about Supernatural world. I don't know how to properly put my abilities to best use . My only saving grace is I know how to fight but so does anyone else who had attended self defense classes for as much duration as I did. Besides something tells me it's not going to make as much of a difference moving forward " With a frown he stared at both his left and right arm, "I don't know what to do with my life. Never did in the past and that isn't going to change much in the future. There are tons of individuals out there who could make use of this powers in a better way, much better way than I will ever be able to. Why me?"

"I cannot answer this question for you." Rias replied in a serious tone, "But whether you had awakened these abilities or not, you are a very loyal and caring friend, and very pure hearted individual. I can say for certain you would have been special whether you were a part nine tails or not. You shouldn't belittle yourself like that. Perhaps it's fate you are chosen to wield all these special abilities that others can only dream of." Rias concluded in a calm tone.

"Well fate must have a great sense of humour if she picked up seventeen year old good for nothing pariah." Ben chuckled a little, "I honestly don't think I'd ever be able to fit in among all these high and noble beings."

"I guess high rank and ability can be a bit charismatic but what matters is the individual." Rias laughed heartily, " And in time who knows? You may even end up surprising yourself someday."

"Besides if it still bothers you that much..." Akeno giggled as she walked up to him and bent forward , close to his ear. _" Big Sis wouldn't mind you giving you some private counselling!"_ She whispered with some sort of predatory smile which sent shivers running through his spine.

 _"Big sis? Huh? She can't be possibly older than me? I am pretty sure it's the other way around."_

"Uh...thank you, Akeno-san!" Ben laughed nervously, feeling a bead of sweat rolling down the back of his head. He didn't what she meant but knowing her title and what entailed alongside it, he had no desire to be any part of it whatsoever

"Anything for a pla...I mean friend." Akeno remarked as her eyes became half lidded and a seductive smile formed on her face, So declaring she tackled Ben from the side, mashing his right arm in between her breasts.

Suddenly Ben felt the air around him stir as the redhead next to him made her displeasure known.

"Akeno~" Rias whined, giving her sadistic queen a dark look.

"But Buchou~ I didn't do anything yet." The dark haired thunder priestess responded with a pout

"That's what I am worried about Akeno. This guy has been just thrust into this new world beyond his understanding and he even witnessed a murder today , he needs time to recover and I don't think your ideas of fun are going to help him much ."

Placing a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles, the sadistic queen let go of him but not before sliding a finger down the length of his arm , "Fufufu, You are such a buzzkill Buchou! Don't worry Ben-kun, We will continue with our skinship some next time, okay~!

 _"Damn! Is she bullying me? It sure seems like it."_ Ben shuddered at the thought, "Skinship" with her was definitely going to end up with him losing some of his skin. However, the Gamer's mind was quick to kick in and Ben felt himself returning back to peaceful calm and tranquility.

"Well, it was nice to officially meet you two. I am pretty sure you guys know a lot about me than I know about you but I hope we can become friends and allies future." Ben chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I am more than looking forward to it." Rias responded with a sincere smile.

"Ara~ I certainly hope so." Akeno chimed in a sing song voice , giving him a predatory look that Rias knew too well but couldn't stop her queen.

Before the conversation could get more embarrassing, Ben was saved by the vibrations of his cell phone inside his pocket. Quickly taking his cell out of his pocket, he checked the caller id

"Oh sorry! It's my mom, Excuse me for a moment, Gremory -san."

"Sure."

"Hello!" He answered

...

"No, I am not out on date Mom. I was just talking with a few classmates who happened to be girls"

...

"Fine. I will get on to that right now."

...

"Alright!"

...

"I didn't leave the light on ...? Hello? Hello?" Ben looked at his phone with a sigh. The call had already ended, Rolling his eyes in irritation he put the cell back in his pocket, "Gremory-san, Akeno-san, I got to head back to home. I have some errands to run and my mom isn't someone to take no for an answer." Ben stood up and bowed

"It's alright, If you need anything just let us know and I will take care of it." With a warm smile Rias opened her drawer and handed him over piece of paper, somewhat around the same size of a playing card. "This side is for casual usage, If you need someone to talk to or need some sort of advice, you can use it whenever you want to and this side is for more crucial situations, If you feel that weird things are happening around you or your life is at risk. On the other hand, I will send someone over to watch your house so you don't have to worry about anything else."

Ben stared at the card, The first side had this weird fancy pentagram engraved over it, reminding him of the fancy stuff one can find inside fantasy anime/mangas or video games, The runic circle also had a flower...rose in particular drawn in the center. Which was pretty strange because that's what Rias actually smelled like. The bottom and top proudly proclaimed "We grant your wishes", also written with the usage of flowery patterns.

He turned it around...

His heart skipped a beat.

Yep. That was without a doubt their cell numbers.

First meeting with Akeno and now this, It was definitely two strikes in the same day.

"Try not to get in trouble, fox-kun!" Rias winked with a playful smile as she extended her hand which Ben firmly shook.

"By all means I should but considering my luck since last couple of weeks, I can't promise you anything." Ben chuckled and disappeared through the door with a two finger salute.

"Ara Ara ~ it seems that underneath his laid back and careless attitude, He also has an interesting personality. " Akeno turned to Rias with a gleeful smile, involuntarily starting to lick her lips, "What do you think about him, Buchou?"

Holding out her hands, Rias started counting on her fingers, " One: He is pretty cute Two: He looks a bit unreliable but with some more polish he would stand out more in a crowd Three: Right now, he is probably the hottest thing since Underworld opened up for business based on his looks and charisma alone. Even if we don't take his Kyuubi heritage into consideration, There are not a lot of sacred gears out there which can aid their users while remaining dormant in their soul and those that do tends to be quite formidable ones. That fact alone makes him as a pretty fine catch as far as peerage member or even a potential boyfriend material goes around here. Now, if all we have felt about his power is real, all he needs is some confidence and he will _shine._ Plus considering what he had been through just now, the poor guy looks like he can use some help fitting in. And I am the _girl_ who can do all that for him." She added with a devious smirk folding her arms up under her breasts.

Akeno noticed this and took the chance to tease her as she said, "Ufufu, Is Buchou starting to have a crush on Tennyson-kun? Oh what would the Underworld say if they found out the famous Crimson haired ruin princess is developing feelings for a half human half youkai sacred gear wielder?" Akeno said as she smiled innocently towards her.

"You are the one to talk, Akeno." Rias retorted, "I know you are also attracted to him due to the foreign delinquent aura he is emitting off himself."

"Ara~It seems I got caught red handed." Akeno sighed dramatically as she placed her hand on her cheek, feeling it slightly heating up.

"But still, from what I have seen and felt he is miles better from that man." Rias gave her a small smile as she stared at Ben's retreating form from the window, "Once he reaches his true potential, even Grayfia-sama will have trouble taking him on." Rias closed her eyes, taking a long breath as a thought came to his mind "All I need to do is figure out how to convince him."

 _..._ xxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...

Ben was gasping a little. For some reason his heart was beating and he felt tingles running in his chest.

 _"Damn! What is this weird feeling inside my head?"_ The young Tennyson gripped his chest tightly, he didn't know what was happening to him but he kept feeling this ominous pressure when he was inside the Occult Research Club. It was a strange tense feeling he had never felt before in his entire life. He then slowly leaned back against the wall and took a couple of long breaths. Now that breathing exercises were a part of his Gaming skills, he could do it much better than he previously did. Needless to say, calm returned to him within no time and he started to walk towards the nearby bus stop. He needed to get to the supermarket and bring all the contents his mother and father both separately asked him to do. While the supermarket was closer from his home , not so much from the academy.

He also decided to accept the new party request from World Serpent, Which still didn't make much sense to him. Why a dragon wanted to be his companion out of nowhere? Unless it happened to live inside his arm but he had yet to filter from what devils told him and what was the real truth. A gigantic flame breathing lizard living in his body, Nah, He wasn't foolish enough to believe into something absurd like that. The moment he pressed the Y though, an orange glowing screen popped up in front of him

 **PING**

 **Congratulations , You have now successfully formed a party with [** **Midgardsormr]**

 **Through special act, a new skill has been created, [Lesser Draconic Charisma] (Passive) (Lvl 3, Exp: 74%)**

 **Dragons are massive creatures, capable of accomplishing great things. One of them being transforming into other beings. But regardless of what form they take, they have a natural air of charisma about them which draws people to them. As someone who is closely associated with a dragon, You have acquired a certain portion of this perk.**

 **-Automatically adds 2 LUK per level**

 **-Automatically adds 1 CHAR per level**

 **-35% Draconic Exp bonus with this skill due to being in the same party with [Midgardsormr]**

Ben let out a sigh, he really didn't want to think much about this right now. Feeling the strange urge to simply lay on the grass and watch the clouds despite being nowhere near his limits. Damn! Did he unlocked some sort of Shikamaru Nara transformation using Unitrix? It surely looked like it. Gazing at the passerby's with his head occupied with thoughts, he paused in the middle of the bridge, thinking about the "missions" he had ever since he received this crazy ability.

Even action he took while finishing a quest, did represent an aspect of his personality. Which was quite surprising. A part of himself that was either normally locked or suppressed due to peer pressure.

He did want to learn how to cook. He had thought about it many times in the past but he was either too lazy or preoccupied to make any efforts in that direction.

He would have saved Kunou regardless of it being an unavoidable quest. Even though he was scared shitless of that crazy priest, he wasn't going to let him murder a child or die trying. He didn't have it in him to walk away just like that.

He did _want_ to impress Akeno or probably even Rias. While he wasn't a member of their fan clubs or a horndog like the perverted trio, he did admire them from distance. May be even had a small crush but he was too prideful to admit that to anyone and tried to act indifferent as he knew very well how they were way out of his league. He neither had the will or confidence in the past to do something and get their attention.

This game and all those quests, they were bringing out different shades of his personality which he didn't know or buried deep, deep inside of him. The Game knew him better than anyone and it was definitely disturbing to a certain extent.

 _Strange, I never realized this before. So the increase in my INT and WIS has started showing up."_ He thought to himself with a smile , staring at the setting sun. However before he could enjoy his newfound peace for a few more seconds, he felt a shudder run up his skin. As if something bad was about to happen, Instinctively, he turned around to pinpoint the area where this ominous feeling came from. Within no time, he managed to spot a young girl around his age walking towards him.

She was quite pretty. Wore a uniform which he didn't recognize. Though he had to say she pulled it off nicely. She had jet black hair and purple eyes

 **PING**

 **PING**

 **[Danger Sense] has levelled up**

 **[Danger Sense] has levelled up**

 **Through special act, a new skill has been created, By sensing Bloodthirst directed towards you , you have created the instinctual skill [Bloodthirst Detection] (Passive) (Lvl 1, Exp: 0.0%)**

 **Detects Bloodthirst within 40 m from the user's location, also pointing him towards the origin of such animosity.**

Ben rolled his eyes in irritation as the "girl" walked towards him with pink hue adorning her cheeks. Also fumbling with her bag for a while before making her way towards him. Muttering a silent Observe under his breath, he tried to appear as much calm and composed he possibly could.

 **Raynare- Lvl 31**

 **HP-4600**

 **MP-3400**

 **Description-?**

 **Warning: Requires Lvl 25 to access this information**

"Excuse me! You are Tennyson Ben-kun, aren't you? from the Kuoh academy?" She asked in a shy demure tone but Ben knew better. Her level was too much high to be considered human and certainly the way his **[Danger sense]** levelled up over two times , adding the fact that he now accidentally created a new skill altogether related to detecting bloodthirst just by sensing her approaching, This spelled trouble all over again. Even Akeno and Rias didn't affect his Danger sense this badly, despite the fact that one of them was Ultimate Sadist and another one wanted to literally turn him into a Devil. Which meant that even though this individual appeared to be having an innocent appeal, There was more to her than meet meets the eyes and he needed to be very very careful about dealing with this situation.

 _"Oh snap! I am in trouble."_ Ben said to himself as he calmly replied, "I guess that would be me, Is there anything I can do for you, Miss?"

"I...uhm...are you seeing anyone at the moment?" She asked while staring at the ground.

Ben raised an eyebrow, This wasn't a question a girl normally asked to a complete stranger, even if she was attracted to him.

"Well..not really!"

"That's great." She paused appearing to be struggling with her words as she continued further, "Um, Will you go out with me?"

 **PING**

 **Main Quest! Secret Event Unlocked! Date from Hell!**

 **Raynare "Yuuma" Amano has asked to be your girlfriend. Accepting the offer will automatically fail this quest**

 **Raynare is ? from ? faction and the only way to deal with them is to** _ **deal with them.**_ **Find the most suitable way to reject her offer.**

 **Bonus Objectives:**

 **?**

 **?**

 **?**

 **Rewards : Increased closeness with Occult Research Club, 650 EXP, A new Title**

 **Bonus Rewards: 500 EXP per accomplished bonus objective, ?**

 **Failure : Certain death, Game over.**

 _"Why the hell am I getting close to ORC anyways?"_ _"_ Ben sighed inwardly, " I would really love to go out with you but..." He began with a casual smile as the gears inside his brain started rolling. Suddenly a light bulb went off in his head as he instantly managed to come up with a way to solve this issue, for the time being.

"My father recently returned from a long business trip to Europe and I promised to help him with handyman stuff, Fixing the sink, painting the garage...things like that. So I don't really have time till the end of this week." He concluded with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, Are you sure you won't be able to make an exception?" With a hopeful smile she pressed further.

"I am really sorry but I gave him my word...I can't back out , especially when I promised my dad about that. It would look really uncool on my part. " He responded in a calm tone and for the first time during this entire conversation Yuuma seemed a bit lost. As if she didn't know what to do. Deciding to take advantage of her state, Ben took out a notebook and a pen from his duffel bag, wrote down his number on a page, ripped it off and then handed it over to Yuuma.

"Why don't you give me a call this weekend? Maybe we can figure something out." Ben continued in a fake jovial tone

" I surely will" She promised "sincerely" , adding in her usual cutesy tone, " I have to go now, I guess I will see you around."

And just like that she walked on, her pace being a lot faster than the most girls around his age. Turning around, Ben let out a huge sigh of relief. Feeling the tension and fake emotions leaving his body. Unless he had started developing some heavy masochistic tendencies, He really shouldn't be going out with a girl who either wanted to kill him or worse...use him for some nefarious purpose.

Well who knew, He had gotten smart enough to delay the inevitable and at least put her scheme on the hold. May be he might be able to come up with something by the end of this week which could permanently remove this threat from his life. Suddenly multiple blue glowing screens started popping up, completely blocking his line of sight.

 **Congratulations, Thanks to your sharp wit , incredible perception and quick decision making ability , you have successfully averted a vicious conflict.**

 **You have gained the title [Shrewd As Snake] (7% increase to LUK, 15% increase in chances to land a critical hit during the battles, 2% increase to INT, Reputation boosted by 40% while undergoing negotiations)**

 **Thanks to spending a lot of time contemplating on previous events and engaging in a short conversation with "Yuuma" you have wasted a lot of your precious time. Now you only have forty minutes to finish your task successfully.**

 **There is no me in the family (2)**

 **Primary Objective:** **Your father has asked you to get a number of soap, shampoo and toothpaste for the house, Don't forget! And beware of innocent looking pretty highschool girls in uniforms which you don't recognize, They might ask you out on a romantic escapade only to turn into cruel nefarious creatures and slaughter you in cold blood when no one is paying attention!**

 **Rewards: (8200+ 16400) Exp, (2000+4000) Yen**

 **Failure: (300+600) Exp, (50+100) Yen, (Mildly) Decreased closeness with your father, (Slight) loss of trust**

 **Yet to turn in**

 **Secondary Objective:** **Get everything under 20% discount, Make sure to check the expiry date**

 **Rewards: 1500 Yen and 2000 Exp**

 **Failure: None**

 **Yet to turn in**

 **Secret Quest: Angel from Hell**

 **Yuuma "Raynare" Amaano is a ? from ? faction. She has asked to be your Girlfriend. The best way to deal with her is to _deal with her._ Find the best way to turn her down without angering her.**

 **Rewards: 200% increase in experience gain and rewards of the main quest**

 **This task has been accomplished successfully**

 **Status: Task accomplished**

 **Rewards: 300000 XP, 10M Yen, Title[Dark Angel Slayer] ( Grants 400% effect boost to all passive skills, 600% effect boost to all active skills, Complete invulnerability to light based attacks)**

 **Status: Task failed**

 **Can't be turned in till the original quest is over.**

 **Estimated time remaining: Thirty eight minutes, twenty six seconds**

 _Damn! What's the point of having this creepy bonus objectives with the OP rewards? That's totally unfair._

Ben rolled his eyes in irritation, glancing at the glowing screen in front of him. He just couldn't catch a break, could he? Stretching his arms with a yawn, he picked up his duffel bag checked his wallet and started walking towards the bridge.

After all, He still had a long way to go till he reached his desired destination.

...xxxxx...xxxxxxx...

 **First things first, wish you all a wonderful 2019 ahead in advance, Stay in good health and achieve greater heights of success. Happy New Year :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamer**

A tall dark man with pointed ears walked inside an undisclosed area with the gait of a ruler. He frowned upon hearing the screams and cries of many who were being experimented inside the dark dungeon. He didn't pay any attention to that as his mind was focused on several other things, such as shattering the fragile truce between the three fractions and change the outcome of this world. Prove to everyone that the people of his race were the ultimate beings to ever come into existence.

One of his agents, a rogue cleric named Roberto was supposed to perform an action which should have caused a long lasting conflict between Youkais and devils, It would have been such a joy seeing all those wretched dirty beings tearing each other apart, however he was robbed from his excitement and thrill because Roberto had failed to carry out his mission.

It didn't matter much to him though. This was supposed to be just a _test mission._ He was not foolish enough place all his hope into that mindless bumbling buffoon's hands.

Instead, he was planning something much much bigger. Finding ways to rectify the most pressing issue of his race that idiotic Azazel never bothered to address. Increase the population of his race. Fallen Angels were under a lot of stress , probably since the last great war ended. Devils had their evil pieces and according to his sources, heaven was now _this_ close from developing Angels their own method which rivaled the evil pieces. It wasn't that Azazel wasn't capable or resourceful enough of finding a solution to this puzzle but he was just too much obsessed with those sacred gears. Although he himself found those artifacts interesting but that didn't give Azazel any excuse for neglecting his duty and upholding his pride as the leader of all Fallen. However, he was determined to not fail his race like most of his fellow leaders did. With the way things were going, his race was about to go absolute unless they started procreating with humans. Which wasn't something Kokabiel was fond of, considering the only reason they went to war against Heaven after falling for their grace because those bloody damn goody two shoes murdered their wives and slaughtered their children. Referring to them as monsters They tried it many centuries ago but it didn't work out as much as they expected to be. Besides with how much influence Devils and Angels had out there, it wasn't that easy for them to pick up daughters of Eve as their wives without others catching the drift of what they were up to.

He himself had tried to start a family with a strong willed female magician whom he came to respect and adore over the years, Only for some magicians associated with devils to attack her and a child they fathered together, killing both of them altogether in a very violent and disturbing manner.

The fragile truce didn't matter. It never did. That was nothing but a clever excuse they were using to strategically and skillfully wipe out his race one by one and their so called leader didn't care about any of it.

He had seen the pain and anguish in his brother's eyes when those good for nothing lowlifes took in his daughter, not only brainwashed her against her father and her race but also _turning_ her into one of _them._

 _Those vultures...they have nothing better to do than to just snoop in unnecessarily._

Denying a father chance to be with his wife and children...that was unforgivable! Barakiel knew that his wife's so called "relatives" were up to no good but their leader, perhaps one of the smartest minds in heaven, only second to their own father, insisted that he needed to go and work on making some pact with Asgardians. Seriously, what was he thinking? Granted that establishing connections with the likes of Aesir and such seemed like a great idea but Wasn't he already aware of the disturbing amount of animosity those fanatic Himejima clan members held towards Barakiel's wife and his daughter?

Kokabiel insisted that they should at least consider taking some sort of security measures against them or even move Barakiel's family in one of their owned territories, just so they could have stayed protected , even in Barakiel's prolonged absence, against any and every individuals who wanted to cause harm to them. However Azazel was having none of it. Unfortunately, during that time, he held Azazel in high esteem, having a disturbing amount of respect and honor for that man's past achievements. He thought Azazel had a plan to deal with this. Perhaps he knew something that they didn't. And last but not the least, he expected Azazel to handle this matter in a much sincere manner. After all, he had a duty to protect Shuri and her daughter. Not just as the governor general but as a family. Barakiel wasn't just a comrade or one those massively produced two, four or six wingers by creator to aid them in the war against Underworld.

He was one of their own flesh and blood. He was one of the great seven. He was their brother.

The leader they trusted, The leader they revered so much was nothing but a failure who didn't give a damn even about his own family, let alone their race. He was always busy with his stupid research which never seemed to make any major changes to their life.

And that was the time, he finally _snapped._

 _"Why should ' they' allowed to be happy when the people I care about are in pain and suffering?_ _They should be allowed to know my fury."_ Kokabiel seethed in fury and sadness as he gently grasped the edges of nearby table, his eyes turning watery for a moment.

Taking a brief moment to calm himself down, he recalled his new purpose. The current goal of his life. The reason behind starting this operation, most if not all apart from trusted few from his organization were entirely unaware of.

 _"We need an army!"_

Which was easier said than done. That's why he was forced to pick the brain of a certain very _unique_ minded individual.

Valper Galilei also known as genocidal archbishop, a nickname he gained due to infamous less than stellar he carried out to increase the number of holy sword wielders which he likely had done so (much towards ire of Gabriel and Michael) despite getting life time banishment from church. And he was among the very rare individuals to get a Ph.D in genetic engineering at a very early age. Which was a good thing because such skill could come in very handy for the mission Kokabiel needed him to carry out.

The said man stood in front of a computer screen , going through various calculations and simulations as several individuals locked inside shook violently with a white colored foam forming on their mouth.

"Nine out of nine dead. This isn't what you have promised to me, Valper." Kokabiel frowned

"We have came a long way from where we began , making considerable leaps and bounds in progress and it seems that things are progressing at a steady rate. All we need is a bit of time." The priest/scientist raised an eyebrow in annoyance but chose his words carefully. Being very much aware about that man's ill tempered nature.

"That's not what you promised when we brought you in. " The dark angel scoffed in an humorless tone.

"It's far more complicated than you are assuming m'lord. the main issue we are facing right now that mortal bodies can't seem to handle the "Angelfication" their very DNA explodes the moment we add our serum in their system." Valper said as ran another simulation, " I am working on how to make the formula OZ more stable and adaptable to foreign genes."

"Seriously? Formula OZ? are you that defunct in the concept of originality?" Kokabiel glared at the rogue scientist/priest.

"Ah, I have always found those fictional tales quite fascinating. It would be highly amusing if you could refer me as Nor-..." Before Valper could finish his sentence a sharp spear of light embedded on the back of his neck. "I will just keep this thoughts to myself, Mi'lord." He concluded with a nervous smile.

"My patience is wearing thin Valper, If this series of failures continue any further...

"Wait, Mi'lord. There is a way. During my tenure as an archbishop I have heard about a certain nun that possessed a sacred gear which could heal all forms of injuries for everyone, be it devil, angel or Youkai" Valper's fingers frantically ran on the computer, running several sets of calculations at the same time. " Our chances of success would increase by 80% if we were to get our hands on that."

Kokabiel dangerously narrowed down his eyes, "Hmm...then I shall inform my agents at once, So what is the name of this particular nun?" The dark angel asked once again, his lips twitching in a small smile.

Breathing in a sigh of relief, Valper replied in a calm tone.

"Asia, Asia Argento."

...xxxx...xxxxxxx...

Despite all the 'trouble he went through to get every single item on the list with a certain amount of discount, his level didn't increase as he initially hoped. It seemed he will need a lot more experience points than he calculated beforehand to get anywhere near Yasaka or that evil bastard Kokabiel's level.

Ben asked himself the greatest question, Yuuma...he was pretty sure he saw her disappearing after rubbing what appeared to be some sort of bird feather. It looked like some form of teleportation but Ben wasn't sure about that. Last time he saw someone performing such supernatural feats was the time when he saw Yasaka. Which wasn't that big of a shock considering she was the freaking Kyuubi empress.

Aside from the fact, he also found the quest's reference a bit cryptic. When he received the quest in the morning, he thought that system was probably just messing with his head. But he was gravely mistaken. The words like Dark angel slayer and Angel from hell...it seemed like the system was trying to warn him...that something was wrong. Did that mean Yuuma was some sort of angel? But why an Angel would want to harm him? Of course as a Winchester fan that wasn't a big surprise but as Yasaka explained , The real supernatural was a lot more different. However, if she turned out to be a fallen angel then it spelled big trouble for him. It was the third time he had gotten into trouble thanks to direct or indirect involvement from fallen angel side.

Did Kokabiel know about him witnessing the Priest's murder and sent one of his subordinates to deal with him? or this was about the first time he saved Kunou?

None of that made sense to him right now . And as much as he hated to admit, he was no Light Yagami from Death Note to figure out everything at the first glance.

 _"Damn! Get a grip Ben. It's not like anyone is going to murder you in sleep."_ Ben thought to himself, Trying to reassure himself but it didn't help him much with his anxiety and fear. Only thing which was keeping him calm and composed was his Gamer's mind but even that couldn't stop him from worrying about his future in this world of Gods, Demons and Dragons.

 _"Like you initially suspected, Anyone matching the description of Yuuma Amano doesn't exist in the area. But How did you...figured it out?"_

 _I get this really strange feeling when certain individuals approach me, got really tense, I felt it around you guys too but when she approached me, I felt shivers running through my spine as if she was going to murder me and steal my organs right there and then._

 _Hmm...Interesting. Perhaps the Dragon has a way of instinctively protecting you or it's just Kyuubi powers acting out against threats._

 _Gre-Rias-san! Do you think they know about...?"_

 _"I honestly don't think so. Fallens do not leave victims behind. The grigory who committed murder is most likely unaware about you catching him in the act. However, I can't deny they might be interested in you for the same reasons I am. As I explained to you already, you are a very special individual Ben and not just because of your Sacred gear._

 _"But why? It's not like I started spitting out fire or something like that. Though I don't deny it would be pretty cool"_

 _"He he, true, but I believe you will be able to learn all those cool things within no time."_

 _"Rias-san, M-my family...They are not in any sort of danger, Are they?"_

 _"Don't worry Ben-kun. You are under the protection of Gremory Heiress. No harm shall fall upon you, I will give you my word for that."_

Eventually he managed to make it home.

"Hey Ben!" Carl called out to him as he walked past the living room.

"Benjy! How was your day?" Sandra asked.

"Amazing..." A sarcastic Ben mumbled under his breath as he made his way upto the stairs. The entire day had taken a surreal turn ever since he stumbled upon that dying priest and it just went downhill from there. Besides this wasn't something he could discuss with his parents. He didn't want them to freak out and panic or put them in some sort of danger..

"Are you alright Kiddo? " Carl spoke out in concern.

Stopping at top of the stairs, Ben straightened up, brushed the droplets of sweat forming on his forehead and turned around with a casual smile. Rias' words held a lot of conviction behind them, perhaps he didn't have to worry about this as much as he was doing right now

"I was just going to take a nap, It's been a really long day."

"Oh, Do you want me to make a Chicken soup?" His mom gave him a worried look.

Ben shook his head and responded with a sigh.

"Nah, This is just a one day thing. Let me just sleep off the crumminess. Later guys."

And just like that Ben receded into his holy sanctuary where no one could disturb him for rest of the day.

...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...

"So what is it you wanted to talk about Rias?" Sona Sitri, the demon heiress who went by her human alias Souna Shitori asked as she moved her knight forward. Rias and Sona were old friends and the little sister of Leviathan thought that she knew her fellow heiress better than any one else. Meanwhile the crimson haired devil was barely paying any attention to their ongoing game. Which was quite frustrating for Sona as Rias was actually having a lot better time dealing with her assault and turning the heat back on her.

"I dunno what to say Sona but it seems that there is a storm brewing and this place is in the center of everything." Rias let out a troubled sigh.

"Are you talking about the murdered cleric?" Sona raised an eyebrow.

"Not just a normal cleric Sona, he was a natural born holy sword wielder entrusted with one of the heaven's most treasured swords and he was murdered by a fallen angel." Rias explained further. Informing her how Akeno stumbled upon Ben in the morning by witnessing his fight against Kuoh University's resident wrestling champ, who was considered to be "unbeatable" in certain circles. In fact, even Sona was somewhat impressed by his athletic prowess and considered to make him her pawn at a certain point. The minor background search she ran on Ben during last few hours , what the young Tennyson truly was in reality and the powerful dragon residing within his arm.

"What the fu...?" Sona swore, almost out of character for the usually calm, composed and always in control Student Council President, but learning that a Kyuubi no Kitsune who also happened to host one of the five great Dragon Kings lived right under their noses and they didn't have any idea about it, not in the slightest. No wonder she was definitely caught off guard after learning about that.

"I said the same words when Akeno informed me." Rias said with an amused look, "If it wasn't for our encounter with _him_ we'd be still unaware of these nefarious schemes."

"Poor guy, he must have been pretty shaken after seeing all that." Sona said thoughtfully

"I think he is but at the same time he comes off as a very balanced minded individual. He also has a certain air of dignity around him." Rias said with a light hearted smile, "When I talked to him today, it was like talking to someone who saw me an equal and I found myself enjoying it."

"Tennyson may not have a lot of friends but he is referred by most as an overall decent individual. However from what I learned about him from reliable sources, he has too much of an independent streak going for him. Pushing him in a submissive position might not be that easy." Sona responded in a calm tone.

"I don't treat my subjects in that manner!" Rias threw her old friend a nasty glare, her anger flaring up at such ridiculous claim.

"You are misunderstanding my words Rias." Sona smiled, slightly bowing her head in apology, "What I mean is, he is a little bit too much strong willed to let go of certain not so attractive aspects of our system."

Rias smiled back at her friend , taking the Sitri heiress' hand and squeezed it with a thoughtful nod, "I have already taken that into consideration. No matter how it might seem on the contrary, Ben-kun is a loner. He doesn't seem to have any close friends or acquaintances. Someone whom he can trust at such chaotic stage of his life Besides his entire world has turned upside down. He is really afraid right now, he has no one to talk to. His life and probably that of his family's are in danger due to all these abilities he possess. Right now...I just want to be there for him as a friend and allie. I am also planning to introduce him to my peerage and perhaps, join our club if he his willing to. Perhaps given some time...he will open up to me and his perception about evil pieces may completely change. He is an individual with immense aura and enormous potential. I am not saying I won't be disappointed if things won't work out between us but I would be more than happy to have him as a friend, rather than having nothing." She concluded in a soft tone, her voice strained a bit at the end.

There was a moment of silence in which the blue haired devil heiress drank in the full info. She was no stranger to reading between the lines and as someone who knew Rias ever since she was in her nappies, she could sense the very well hidden tone of desperation anyone except her would have definitely missed.

Rias was getting desperate and it wasn't her fault. Even she would have felt the same if she happened to be pushed into same scenario like her. She had little to no respect for phenex scion. Unlike the rest of his family, who were by far some of the most well mannered, highly sophisticated and humble individuals Sona had ever encountered in her life, Riser was a complete turnaround . Despite coming from such dignified and noble background, he turned out to be a rude, arrogant, aggressive playboy who looked down on everyone except Ultimate Class individuals or members of his own clan. He had some sort of twisted sense of honor but that didn't make up for him being a complete douche bag with an extremely lascivious attitude. The fact that her childhood friend was forcibly engaged to him left a sour taste in her mouth.

Deciding not to beat around the bush any further, Sona asked in a kind tone.

"How long?"

"Five months. He could possibly try to jump the gun and start pressuring me in three but I don't think my brother would allow that." Rias shook her head with a sigh.

"Rias, members of phenex clan have been beaten in the ratings games before." Sona said with a supporting smile, "Besides you already have a really terrifying peerage, Your knight is a survivor of the holy sword project, Your rook belongs to a specific species of nekomata, which is so rare and feared that it's almost extinct with only three survivors, One of them is the leader of the entire northern sect of Youkai, another one is her sister and last but not the least is she herself. Your bishop is born with a sacred gear so powerful and rare that he had to be locked away for his own protection. And don't even let me start on Akeno!"

Rias coughed sheepishly, looking away in embarrassment, "Well I have a bit of devil's luck, I absolutely can't deny it but you have your own peerage and I have mine. I wouldn't ever trade them for the world."

"I share your sentiments Rias but are you sure you can't convince...

"Gasper is not a fighter. I really wish there was some way to get him out of that room and make him get over his fears but sending him in his current condition, It would be nothing short of a death wish . Thankfully, Akeno and Koneko are much more functional in society than Gasper but just like him, both of them are still very much traumatized by their past. No matter what the outcome may be, I won't force them to use their _abilities_ any more than they are willing to." Rias explained with a smile. For all her beauty and appeal, the redhead didn't show even the slightest bit of regret or disappointment.

Sona sighed in response, "You care too much, Rias."

"I am a Gremory afterall." The Crimson haired ruin princess shrugged indifferently.

"Do you think that they plan on making it all about power?" Sona raised an eyebrow.

"It makes much sense for them to do so. If it were to be about stealing something from the opposition or holding your territory for a certain time limit, Riser wouldn't have as much of an advantage against me. Granted he will be a tough opponent to deal with, regardless of the chosen format for the game but if I were to face him against a pure power based Ratings Game, where I must defeat him and his entire peerage to the last man...It's game over for me. No matter what I do." Rias pointed out with a groan, not very happy about the favoritism higher ups and especially her parents were showing to that bastard, "I have no doubt the chance they have offered me is nothing but an illusion. Ratings Game is already skewed in favor of Riser's superior strength and experience. The likelihood of me getting out of this engagement is abyssal at worst and slightly short of impossible at best. Unless I happen to get my hands on a wildcard, something that Riser can not expect, not even in his wildest dreams. "

"Interesting. As sympathetic as I am to your plight old friend, I hope you make your move soon because I surely plan to make mine." Sona smirked, her violet eyes focused on her friend as she licked her lips in anticipation, " I can't even _think_ about letting go of someone like him."

"Well, you definitely would _So ~Taan ,_ You have always liked to come after my possessions after all." Rias smirked at her childhood friend, referring her by her infamous nickname which made the usually elegant and uptight girl blush like a tomato.

" _..._ shut up, Ria!" Sona rolled her eyes in irritation, causing Rias to giggle a bit. Very few people such as her brother and parents tended to call her by that name, Surprisingly Sona was the one who came up with it during her 6th birthday party.

Sona did feel quite a bit sorry for making her feel so much embarrassed back then but Rias wasn't someone to quickly forgive and forget, She returned the favor ten fold by coming up with an embarrassing nickname of her own, something her beloved but borderline incestuous big (Seriously, She loved her sister to pieces but sometimes she really creeped the hell out of her) sister liked so much that she decided to use it every single time from that point forward...

Certainly, That wasn't a great experience for her. Not at all

She glanced at the chess board again, wondering how to get her queen out from Rias' grasp and block her nasty back front assault. The redhead appeared to be having a great day. Perhaps meeting her little fox friend worked wonders for her luck, Sona was really having trouble registering all the possible moves which could lead her to her victory.

Then it hit her.

More precisely, the image of red metallic gauntlet appearing on her new and only pawn's arms.

Of course, hearing about that would totally ruin Rias' victory parade before it even began. Normally Sona would have cut her some slack, considering what the redhead was going through.

But now that she had brought up _So~Taan..._

Needless to say, she was asking for it. She had to bring her down a peg or two. At least for the sake of her own pride which was completely obliterated by her big sister and _that_ name.

And just like that, the sitri heiress did pull a complete one eighty as far as her mood was concerned, She called out Rias in a surprisingly jovial tone.

"I am really happy that you have found yourself a powerful allie who may or may not end up joining your peerage, _Ria,_ but I have something very important to discuss with you as well."

Rias narrowed down her eyes at hearing that, As far as games were concerned, Sona wasn't the most graceful when it came to accepting her loses. So it didn't make much sense for her to be in such a good mood, especially when she was about to beat her in today's game of chess.

"I never told you exactly what sacred gear Hyoudou-kun possessed, did I?"

...xxxxxx...xxxxxx...

 **A Few Hours Later**

Issei wasn't having a great day. When he agreed to become a devil underling of Sitri household by joining the Student Council President's peerage, the last thing he expected was to run into was to travel through entire city on his bicycle , delivering leaflets from one end to another end of this darn town. Hack! He had no freaking idea Kuoh could be this huge and he spent seven years of his life in this town. Thankfully, he didn't feel that tired during the nighttime and his devil body worked at its peak when sun was absent. He wanted to go out and do contracts instead of roaming around the city in his bicycle, the last thing he wanted to do was to be named the "Bicycle Devil", however for some reason only known to herself, Sona insisted that he had to hand out flyers at least for his first month as a Devil.

Anyways, it wasn't like he was complaining. Before, he would have never gotten the chance of hang out with the cute girls like Momo-chan and Ruruko-chan! Now he could spend his entire day around not only Souna Shitori but also the ever beautiful and elegant Tsubaki Shinra, Two of the most popular girls of this academy. His cheeks turned rosy as he fantasized about each one of them. After all these years filled with humiliation, failures and lots of pain, It looked like his dreams of having a harem were finally about to come true...all the breasts he wanted squeeze...

However before his imagination could run wilder, a strange feeling came over him. A chill suddenly ran down his spine and his hand started to shake. It was sort of feeling he got before Yura-chan beat the crap out of him during their "spar" but much much different. This was much much sinister as the feeling of utmost fear and panic crept up to him.

"Interesting...so that is the Sitri family crest."

Issei froze at the voice behind him, letting his bicycle fall. Trying his best to regain his bearings he turned around only to see a middle aged looking gentleman with short black hairs and dark blue eyes walking into the light of a street lamp towards his direction. He wore an outfit which consisted of a pale violet trench coat over a white dress shirt with a matching ascot, black pants and shoes alongside a black fedora.

" You are not what I thought but surely you are the one boss lady sent to find." With a dark smirk, the man traced his fingers alongside the edge of his fedora.

Issei stood there for a moment, his senses going completely haywire. His entire body was shaking with fear and panic. He couldn't stop trembling and start thinking straight.

 _"This man...he is bad news."_ Issei said to no one in particular, brushing beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. Obviously, this guy was dangerous and seemingly wanted to kill him. It hadn't been even a whole week since he became a devil and from the spar with Yura-chan (which was more like a one sided beatdown) he had a pretty good idea that he was no Bruce Lee when it came to fighting. So it would be very stupid of him to take his chance and fight against this guy. Not interested in sticking around any longer and feeling somewhat terrified by the amount of killing intent he was pouring towards him, Issei did the only logical thing which came to his mind.

He turned around and ran off like a possessed madman.

...xxxxx...xxxxxx...

 **Meanwhile, Several Blocks Away**

Unfortunately, sleep didn't come for young Tennyson and he found himself wandering into an abandoned construction site, not too near but not too far from his home, where he could practice his skills and probably increase his stats by a bit if possible. Despite it being nearly 3 AM , Ben didn't let the time of day bother him as he didn't have any reason to fear the human thugs and criminal that may or may not be walking around that area.

He stretched out his arms and grabbed the aluminium coated baseball bat in his hands. He then thought about the most chaotic technique he had at his disposal. Something which had saved his life at the most crucial time.

 **Soul Crash-** A powerful attack he could only use five times in a single day and even required him to sacrifice a significant chunk of his HP but considering the power behind it, that was totally worth it. He had already performed it one time on a huge sturdy looking human sized boulder and just one strike had managed to sent the entire thing flying away in the sky to god knows where with a sharp violent bang which echoed throughout the area. Startling the birds peacefully sleeping in the nearby tree, causing them to scatter in fear and panic.

Such explosive strength? What was the reason behind it? It was almost unreal to believe in. However once he thought about it, he managed to somewhat understand the the principle behind it. This technique allowed him to concentrate his life force in a single point, drilling a sort of ejection point . Through this point imprinted on the surface channeled an explosive amount of energy within the atmosphere with enough power behind to uproot human sized boulders or probably even a tree if he were to practice upon that with a speed that an object of that size and density shouldn't have. As he was yet to know the skill to handle the effects of absorbing life force within the nature, This had some adverse effects on his body. Leading him to lose a chunk of his HP every time he used this attack.

There was a reason he was given this simple, yet really extraordinary skill. Sure he would have liked pretty sparks, spew out fireballs or probably something which he could use to flood places but this was something which was most suitable for him and his body. At least going by the preferences of what he needed to defend himself. However, he didn't have much control over it. That hurt like hell (just for a few moments) even though that wasn't mind numbing and he couldn't control or pinpoint the exact direction where he wanted to throw stuff. Anyways, who cared? he was just shooting things in space for fun.

Despite his newly improved body Ben could feel a slight amount of pain every time he used this attack. Surprisingly it was a lot less extreme than he initially expected it to be, The fact that he could withstand so much damage without really feeling anything simply sounded astonishing for him. Ben laughed out excitedly before pumping his fists into the air in triumph. Closing his eyes for a few moment, he took a few deep calming breaths and started stretching out all of his limbs. Staring at his palms with intense focus . Opening and closing his hands for many time, searching his fingers for any lasting damage, making sure each of them were alright. So far he felt no abnormalities in his movements, no muscle cramps, no diminishment in his spirit or anything wrong with his head, he was completely and perfectly alright. Despite using the said explosive attack for three times in a row.

In fact, he couldn't help but feel even more energized than before. But damn it, this wasn't even the best part, he could just slap an object using blunt weapon and watch it exploding into the sky like a rocket, that was something else. This attack had a lot of potential, if he could learn how to properly wield it someday without causing himself too much harm.

 **Your HP has been reduced by 300**

 **Congratulations! You are a glutton for pain, [Physical endurance] has leveled up by 1**

 **Congratulations! You are a glutton for pain, [Physical endurance] has leveled up by 1**

 **[Blunt Weapon Mastery ] has increased by 1**

 **[Blunt Weapon Mastery] has increased by 1**

 **Continuous struggles and absorbing damage has caused your VIT to increase by 1**

Ben stared at the floating screens in front of his eyes, dismissing them with a wave of his hand. He felt pleased with himself. No blood was spilled. The pain administered was already forgotten and with a bit of **[Pranic Healing]** and **[Life Energy Cultivation]** he should be as good as new. Without wasting any further moment he started focusing on recovering his lost HP.

Taking a long breath, he tightened his grip on the aluminium bat and charged towards another boulder and slammed the glowing blunt weapon with as much ferocity and strength he could muster, causing the entire thing to start shaking. Albeit, quite mildly though . As the effects of **[Power Strike]** were much less focused and lacked the intensity and power **[Soul Crash]** did.

For Ben, This was new beginning. He knew it. He could sense it. He could feel it, the excitement and thrill rushing through his veins like a pulse of electricity. A lot had happened since the last month and going through all these life altering events, It made the young Tennyson hardened. It made him humble. Many things have happened to him. He had encountered some very _exceptional_ individuals. He saved lives and there were times he also failed to act in time in order to help someone. He had made some very dangerous enemies, at the same time, he had also made some very interesting allies. It was time for him to start a new chapter on this book called his life. He was having hard time wondering if he would be able to keep up with this new way of living without losing some of his virtues.

He tried burying the feeling of unease he felt at seeing that priest taking his last breath, He tried to ease the fear he felt at knowing that one of the fallen angels have taken interest in him and not in a very pleasant way. Instead, he focused his attention on something entirely else.

"Skills...Skills..." Ben wondered out aloud, " What kind of skills I can come up with?"

The brown haired youth gritted his teeth in frustration as his mind kept presenting him with the same set of problems over and over again.

" _Man...how hard developing a new awesome skill could be? Did Ben-Prime face the same problems when he got the Omnitrix for the first time? Or is it just me?"_

Leaning back against the pillar, he sat in a meditative pose. With nothing but the chirping crickets to keep him company in the otherwise awfully chilly night. Ben frowned as he suddenly recalled something. Rias told him about some very powerful Dragon dude residing inside his arm and he also had someone referring themselves as the world serpent asking to join his party.

" _Alright, If I have world serpent living inside me, There must be some way I could access his powers. If I just meditated and thought about it...no not thinking...I must concentrate about the strongest thing which comes to my mind. It's how those guys from wuxia shows (Gwen keeps bragging about them in her emails all the time )get their powers anyways."_ Ben thought to himself, however there was always the chance that things could go wrong at the worst possible moment. He didn't want to end up being dead just for the sake of his curiosity.

 _Perhaps if I use Unitrix with this, I won't have to fear much about my safety._

It sounded like a better alternative and in his mind, it actually made a lot of sense.

 _"I wonder how cool it would be, having powers of the actual World serpent. Face it Paradox! I am no longer one of the uncool Ben 10s"_

 **[Rookie Kitsune Mode]**

He whispered under his breath. The moment he uttered those words, a faint outline consisting of bluish flames swirled around him. Starting with surrounding his ears, giving it a much more pointed and canine appearance, his eyes now flashed a much brighter and lively emerald aura, nine barely visible fox like tails emerged behind his back for a moment before dispersing into air as if they were never there in the first place.

Deciding to test his theory, Ben started focusing on what he learned about meditation, breathing and inner energy since past few weeks. Like what he did during the first time he got his abilities, he focused on getting a feel on the flow of his life force and the directions it took while moving through his body. This was something he didn't have much trouble doing. Which meant he had to take the entire thing up to next level. Ben had read enough on internet and even bothered to read some books before coming here. He started gathering all his energy and focus on a single point, now all he needed to find was the right trigger.

 _"Okay, think Ben think, what can you do to draw forth your dragon powers?"_ He asked himself.

"HA! This should work." The young gamer spared himself a smug smile , his mind going back to the moment where he first got to wield the awe inspiring species shifting device, Omnitrix.

"IT'S HERO TIME!"

The result was instantaneous. A blinding flash of light, a vortex of bluish flames engulfing the pillar he had been leaning against and his body getting smashed backwards by what appeared to be thousand grenades exploding on his face.

An earth shattering explosion rocked the entire area. The resulting shockwave was so much violent that Ben was clearly thrown towards the very end of this site, making him spin in the air several times before smashing him against a dead tree a second later.

Despite possessing Gamer's body, it definitely had Ben reeling in pain. Host of World Serpent groaned in misery and pain as he picked himself up from the small crater created by his little explosion. He glared towards his usual training ground. Which seemed like it had been rampaged by a bunch of dinosaurs. A couple of training dummies he brought with him were completely obliterated. The boulder he was practising upon had now shattered into multiple pieces. Pillar he had been leaning against moments ago had now completely disappeared not leaving even a single chunk behind. In it's place emerged a hurricane of bluish intense flames, which twisted and retorted in a wild manner.

Ben rubbed his eyes multiple times in an attempt to clear his blurry vision "What ...the...hell..was...that?"

 **"Darn it! What the f #* are you upto, Boya?"**

Huh

He heard a voice. The same one he heard today at the school.

Once again.

Ben shook his head multiple times. This can not be. There was no one here. He had made sure about that before coming here. The place was completely devoid of his life except him and a certain number of annoying bugs.

So who the heck was that ? Why and how that individual kept talking to him without appearing in front of his eyes?

"Perhaps all these crazy events have started to get to me." Ben breathed in a sigh after taking another very good look around him. Then he felt _it._ The strange tingling sensation around his back. Something inside him clicked, as if someone flipped a switch inside his mind. Quickly he stared at his own reflection, he was quite astonished to see a metallic grey accoutrement almost appearing like an armor, engulfing his entire torso, a pair of dark silver wings emerged behind his back, which had a burning ethereal glow radiating off of them. As if they weren't made of flesh and bone but by bright cerulean flames.

Even he himself had taken a rather "different" appearance. His eyes were now glowing with orange fiery aura and they were slited, as if he was some sort of animal. His ears were now pointed and pointed upwards. He also appeared to have gained a lot of muscle and height too. Almost resembling an adult. Nine fluffy orange tails which gave off a fiery aura swirled behind his back.

"Now what?" Ben groaned and almost on cue several orange screened windows started floating in front of him.

 **Your HP has been reduced by 120**

 **Congratulations! You are a glutton for pain, [Physical Endurance] has leveled up by now.**

 **A special skill had been created through a special act. Through mixing your youki and foxfire with the hidden traces of draconic energy inside you, an Ultimate skill to create a huge explosion on contact, [Vortex of Fire] has now been created.**

 **By unleashing a swift surge of youki, The user can form an assembly of fox fire which rotates upto cyclone like speeds.** **and is hurled at the enemy at tremendous speed. The power of this attack is fearsome, for it generates significant explosive force alongside its burning power, and could easily leave anyone below level 32 as nothing but a pile of ash.**

 **Requires 100% MP points as penalty till the skill [Battle Kitsune Mode ] is learned**

 **Can only be used only once in a day till the skill[Nine Tails Transformation: Lord of Kitsunes] is learned**

 **The sacred gear [Blazing Shift: Fang of Jormungandr] has now been activated.**

Ben forced himself to calm down , even with **[Gamer's mind]** this was a little too much for his fragile brain to process all at once. He could read all of this later. Right now all he needed to do was to figure out about Blazing...

GAAH!

Before he could decide his next step , a pained scream broke through the calm of this night. Immediately forcing him to turn around in a neck breaking speed.

At first, Ben blinked in confusion. That voice _did_ seem familiar.

Actually a bit too much familiar now that he thought about it. The young gamer shook his head, his eyes widened in realization as he recognized the owner of that particular voice.

 _Issei._

 _...xxxxx..._ xxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...


	11. Chapter 11

**Have tails, Will fly**

"Trying to run away, Sekiryuutei!" The man taunted, but Issei didn't pay any heed to him, focusing all his energy on running away from this psychopath. He had no idea who or what this individual truly was but he didn't care. He knew that this old dude was bad news and he needed to get away from him, ASAP.

His thoughts got distracted when he saw bird like black feathers falling from the sky. Issei's eyes widened in confusion and he looked up. He was shocked to his very core when he saw the man he was trying so desperately to run away from was hovering above him with black angel like wings. He was stopped on his tracks when the man landed in front of him with his arms crossed.

"Pathetic, I never expect much from low level creatures but I hoped that Sekiryuutei of all people should be able to put up a fight!" The man stared at him with disdain, "You aren't even expanding a magic circle for escape."

"You are making a huge mistake. My master, who happens to be a really badass and super cool devil princess, would be really pissed at you if anything happens to me." Issei put up a brave face, trying to dissuade this monster from killing him.

Instead of responding, the man flashed a vicious toothy grin as bright light started to emit from his left hand and a spear of light manifested in the thin air. Issei cried in panic and turned to run, knowing very well that getting hit by that shiny spear thingy wasn't a good idea.

But he didn't get any far. Before he could even run a meter from his former position, an incredible pain erupted from his stomach causing him to fall on his knees. He looked down only to see the light spear sticking out of his gut.

 _Why? Why...this hurts so much? I am devil now. My body is supposed to be a lot more strong and durable than an average human, especially during the night_

Coughing a bit of blood, Issei tried to remove the spear using his hands only to fall back as unbearable pain surged through his entire system. His hands were literally burning as if that spear was made out of lava

"It seems that your master forgot to tell you about this, newbie." The man landed behind him, taunting him with a smirk, "Light is a deadly poison to your pathetic species. I honestly thought that would have finished you off by now but you turned out to be a bit more resilient than I imagined at first. " Issei gasped as another sharp glowing projectile appeared onto the man's hands, "Worry not Sekiryuutei, I will put you to rest now."

And just like that , the man hurled the light spear towards him. Issei closed his eyes, surrendering himself to his fate. There wasn't anything he could do right now. A tiny speck of him began praying to God, Maou, Buddha whoever willing to listen to send someone to save him in the nick of time .

Needless to say, his prayers were answered.

Just before another spear could manage to reach him, a strange figure jumped out from the shadows and grabbed him by collar and dragged his ass out of the way. Issei strained to open his eyes for one last time, realizing that the final stab never came. The only thing he could see was the entity's back. Especially nine fiery tails swirling in the air, which surprised him the most.

"Seriously Oppai-baka! I was trying to do some real work down there. Couldn't you have picked better time to get stuck into situation like this?" The entity spoke with a familiar tone which Issei knew very well. While the voice itself seemed a bit different than what he remembered, once he got a good look at the entity's face, it didn't take him much time to recognize his savior.

There was no one he could think of other than him who had such unruly messy brown hair.

The one who saved his bloody damn ass was Ben Tennyson.

" What the...? Ben-senpai? " Issei blurted as struggled between escaping Ben's grip and getting a hold on his bearings. Ben took a quick glance at Issei who was looking at both of them with a mixture of horror, awe and utter confusion. Reminding him of the first time he was attacked by an evil counterpart of himself. It was definitely too much for anyone in his position to understand everything that just transpired. And that just deepened the young Tennyson's rage at the fact that lives could be taken away so easily by creatures like Vilgax, Albedo, Eon and even Kokabiel who liked to prey on innocents without reserve.

"Kitsune?" The fallen angel turned to him while narrowing down his eyes, "So you finally...

Apparently, Ben wasn't much interested in the winged psychopath's villainous monologue as he launched himself towards the fallen like a missile with a single flap of his wings. His shoulder slammed into Dohnaseek like a rampaging rhino, sending him flying head over hell straight onto the nearby fountain. Ben was pretty sure he tore something with that crazy move but it was so worth it. Super strength really was awesome. The fallen barely avoided slamming against the nearby trees by managing to produce a huge light spear, stab it into the ground and holding on for his dear life, the shiny razor edged projectile forming a crevice on the ground as it was dragged along with the fallen.

Deciding to not look back at all, Ben grabbed Issei and started running at his full speed, using the trees to make sure no one could get a clear shot on his head. After arriving near a big tree which appeared to be surrounded by a cluster of bushes, Ben stopped, gently putting Issei on the ground.

 _This should serve as a good hiding spot for now._

Ben checked his wound, which seemed pretty fetal. The spear had nearly managed to cut through his spine and heart, leaving a gaping wound behind and if he didn't do anything soon enough, Issei would die on the spot.

"Hang on Issei! You are not dying on my watch." Ben took a long breath, closing his eyes briefly as he activated the **[Pranic Healing].** A bright green light shone from his palms and spread over to Issei's body, eventually blood started returning to his body and the wound began shrinking, getting smaller and smaller with each passing moment. However Ben didn't know why but the effects of his healing abilities seemed diminished compared to when he used it on the dead priest and many times when he used it upon himself just for practise.

"Oh so you think you could just hit me and run away with my prey!" Dohnaseek called out from behind, his voice carrying a hint of disdain for Ben, "Consider it your final gift from Dohnaseek the great, you damned fox because when I come after you, yours would be the next corpse to taste the wrath of Grigory!"

 _Damn! This is bad news, I am not finished with the healing yet_

Ben cursed under his breath, his **[Danger Sense]** and **[Blood-thirst Detection]** indicating that the fallen angel was approaching his position and Ben didn't want to give him any opportunity to finish the job.

As much as he wanted to continue with the healing process, he also needed to conserve some of his MP for the battle. Hoping that what he did up to this point was enough to keep Issei alive, at least for the time being, he stood up from his position, carefully hiding Issei by moving a few branches.

"Hang on, Issei! I will be back."

And just like that Ben charged in the battlefield at the next opening, without hesitating in the slightest, ready to take down the murderous fallen angel. It didn't matter whether he had the omnitrix or not but he wasn't someone to sit on the sidelines while a psycho toyed with the life of a friend.

After all, He wouldn't be a god damn Tennyson otherwise!

...xxxxxxx...xxxxxx...

 _What the hell is happening?_

Issei thought deliriously, looking down at his chest as he noticed how blood soaked the shirt he brought last weekend with his hard earned money. It didn't make sense at all. Why that crow winged man stabbed him from behind? What did he ever do to him to deserve such cruelty?

Everything still seemed a bit incoherent. It didn't make sense at all. Starting with him being chased by the murderous crow winged bastard, to him flying in the air like some sort of Angel and shooting him down with a spear as if he was some sort of rabid animal waiting to be put down.

After that, his noted that his world tuned upside down. He could see everything around him spinning uncontrollably to the point that he was almost about to throw up. However he was granted reprieve from his pain and suffering when he was laid down on soft grass and a warm light engulfed his body.

 _Seriously Oppai-baka! I was trying to do some real work down there_

Ah yes, How could he forget the part when Ben-senpai showed up in a weird cosplay, saving him from the winged psycho by charging into him like a raging bull, sending the bastard flying away. He knew that senpai was strong but he had no idea he would turn out to be _**that** _strong.

 _Hang on Issei! I will be back_

And he saw Ben's visage retreating and the shadowy form of the fallen chasing after him.

"!"

No. He couldn't do that. He shouldn't be doing that. He couldn't be possibly thinking about taking on someone like that!

Someone, anyone! Please, help Ben-senpai!

Issei mentally yelled before his vision went dark. However before that he noted subconsciously, a strange piece of parchment lying on his abdomen which fell off from Ben's pocket when he was healing him , he thought he could see a brief flash of crimson light.

...xxxxxx...xxxxxx...xxxxx...

Inside the famed Occult Research Club, nestled in the beautiful forest area of Kuoh Academy, The crimson haired devil princess was pacing relentlessly, her mind caught up in a maelstrom of bizarre thoughts and ideas, each one that emerged within was being discarded in no time. Akeno stretched her arms with a yawn as she spared her friend slash leader a glance. She was yet to even touch the tea Akeno laid down on the table thirty minutes ago.

Needless to say Rias was a bit miffed after learning that Issei Hyoudou did in fact possesed a longinus but not that much. While they identified Issei as a sacred gear holder, towards the end of last year. Sona immediately came to them to claim him, cashing in the favors Gremory clan owed their family for playing a huge role in negotiating with Himejima clan through their friendly relations with Shinra family. Rias didn't have much choice but to agree and they were forced to ignore Issei entirely. From a logical point, Sona wasn't wrong as occasionally Rias cashed in such favors as well, especially in regards to sacred gears and various magical fields of study, including sacred gears. Besides even though having Issei as a member of her peerage might have proved to be beneficial in long run. Right now, with his rather frail physique , little to no aptitude when it came to fighting and absurdly low amount of demonic energy, he wouldn't have mattered much in a battle royale against Raiser.

To be honest, Rias found him refreshingly honest compared to everyone else. Sure, he was perverted but at least he was nowhere near as arrogant about it as Raiser was with his damned harem. As a devil born in Gremory clan she inherited some unique traits, which also included having little to no sense of modesty, unlike Sona she would have had much easier time dealing with his constant peeking and perversity.

Anyways no use crying over spilled milk. Sona now had the red dragon emperor in her peerage and she had to accept the fact sooner or later. Whether she liked it or not. Besides in an incredible small window she got, only one person could make the difference

Ben Tennyson.

He was the opportunity she was looking for. A nine tailed fox, highest calibre of youkai, worshipped and renowned as leaders of Youkai faction. Even though she could tell it wasn't a longinus, his sacred gear was extremely powerful, it had to be a Dragon king. One of the five most powerful dragons in the world apart from the two divine dragons. Beings who could have easily killed older generation of Maous. The idea that such person came to her had practically been a fate in her mind. . While Ben's assistance alone wouldn't have been enough to guarantee a sure victory over Riser. Even individuals like that needed to work on unlocking their full potential. They needed time, experience and training. Though it had still been enough to give her hope that she could beat Riser. Raising their chance of defeating Riser upto 20% . Granted 20% was absurdly low but anyone would take it over 0%.

Yes, it seemed quite insulting to her fellow peerage members and beloved king but in terms of a pure battle showdown their chances of winning were 0%. No strategy they could come up with, no training they can do, no forbidden magic they could learn could alter that 0%, Of course unless they could somehow convince Gasper to come out and fight.

And she couldn't imagine that happening even in her wildest fantasies.

Rias sighed in frustration, no matter how much she tried, she just couldn't believe her parents actually agreed to this! Both Gremory and Phenex clan weren't even close to being wiped off!

And even if that was the case, Why Raiser and not a fellow heir? Ruval Phenex, from what she had heard and seen was a perfect gentleman , and still unmarried. Sure, she wouldn't have liked that too but at least she respected Ruval on a personal level. May be they would have reached some sort of agreement which benefited both of them. But her parents had to choose the wrong brother

"Rias" Akeno spoke out in an amused tone, poking Rias in the shoulders, "Your tea is getting cold!"

Letting out a sigh, she collapsed on her couch, akin to a puppet with it's strings cut. Akeno immediately sat next to her best friend and handed her over a cup of tea.

After a few moments of silence, the red head continued, "I need him."

"Ara ara~ so a certain someone managed to get through the heart my king had closed off against the world." Akeno giggled in a teasing manner, trying to lift the mood.

It seemed to work as Rias gave a reluctant smile, "Ben Tennyson, How do I get him in?" She muttered thoughtfully, taking out a complete profile of the young Tennyson who recently caught her eyes.

"It doesn't matter if fallen angels know about him witnessing the priest's murder or not, they would have tried to, eliminate him sooner or later. Thanks to his Youkai heritage and sacred gear. I am pretty sure they will not give up on him that easily " Akeno suggested, "Why don't you tell him that you can only protect his family..."

"No." Rias said firmly, "I will neither compromise the safety of innocent bystanders, nor my dignity as the co ruler of this town just so I can make him join my household."

"I am sorry Rias. " Akeno apologized after a stunned silence, realizing that she probably went a bit too far even by her own standards. However she was still elated to hear her best friend's response. Feeling an immense sense of pride and relief of sorts. Rias had secured her entire peerage by saving their lives, herself included. If she showed that she was willing to throw a prospective peerage candidate to the wolves, it would have made her a bit suspicious about how she gained all four of them.

"It's alright Akeno. You are just trying to look out for me and I really appreciate that." Rias shook her head with a sigh, reaching for another cup of tea.

 _"What to do?"_ Rias said to herself tiredly, looking into compilation of everything there was to be known about one Ben Tennyson.

An only child to Carl and Sandra Tennyson, both of them having no prior experiences with supernatural, Ben Tennyson had a perfectly normal childhood. Going to the nearby Sainan Junior High School before passing the entrance and getting into Kuoh Academy She had to admit though, even before the changes began to show, he was a quite decent in martial arts and most faculty members considered him an accomplished athlete.

However the thing that really stood out the most, according to her, was his friendship, with perverted trio. Especially Hyoudou Issei in particular. Though he really didn't mind seeing them getting punishment for their "crimes", he was the first one to step in for the rescue when it seemed like thing were about to spiral out of control. Like he did against that college student. Even though a certain number of females of the school actively avoided him due to that, he never paid much heed to that. If anything else Rias could appreciate his loyalty towards his family and friends and the lengths he was willing to go in order to protect them. Beside it was rare to see someone who thought with his head and not with the member between his legs.

Maybe she should try the new smoothies shop to tempt Ben into becoming her friend?

However before she think about that any further, she felt a sudden pulse of power which sent shivers down her spine. Both of them turned into the general direction.

"Akeno this feeling..." Rias sharply narrowed down her eyes, focusing her senses in the direction.

"I know Buchou, the feeling is similar to that of a nine tailed fox." Akeno frowned deeply, "But the flavour of its power is a bit different from the one that we know, a lot more intense and a bit dragon like."

Rias was about to say something when she felt a pulse in her pocket. Bemused, she took out her seal and stared at the glow it was emitting. Surprisingly, this happened to be the same special summoning leaflet she gave to Ben. Telling him to use it in case of an emergency. It was either one extremely big coincidence or their new friend had found himself in some sort of trouble. Why would he call out to her at freaking 3 AM? Though, it wasn't like she minded much but he didn't seem like the kind of guy who would be comfortable summoning her just to have a chit chat. She paused as she glanced at the seal once again and pointed it towards the direction where she was sensing the power of a nine tailed fox, noting that it became a lot more intense.

"Buchou! Sona and Tsubaki are already on their way to the source of disturbance." Akeno told her as she checked the new message on her phone, "It seems that a Hyoudou Issei was assaulted by a fallen angel around the same area."

The red haired devil princess let out a sigh, a brief look of concern flashing in her eyes as she thought about a certain brown haired boy.

 _What have you gotten yourself into, Fox-kun?_

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Ben wore a heavy frown on his face as he stared down the man with fedora who nearly killed Issei just a few moments ago. He was just about to **,** call it a day, a night or whatever, go home and sleep as much as his body allowed him to now a days. Last thing he expected right now was to deal with another dark winged psycho going around murdering people. Thankfully, just like any other character in video games, he could regain a certain amount of HP and MP by consuming food. Luckily he stored some apples, orange juice and his mother's favorite tofu chicken inside the inventory, giving him enough points to recover most of his depleted HP and MP. He thought about using the [Royal Meal] at first but ultimately decided against it. As that was the only buff items he got so far and he wanted to use it at a more appropriate event, perhaps in a sort of life and death situation.

Instinctively, he activated **[Observe]** in no time, hoping to get a good read on what he was about to face

 **Dohnaseek, the lesser -Lvl 31**

 **HP-4465**

 **MP-3500**

 **Description- Dohnaseek is a relatively " young" mid level fallen angel named in the "honour" of a great general who lost his life while assisting the Fallen Cadre Armaros in recovering the tomes of knowledge in the aftermath of Great war, hence his designation as the lesser. Resenting his epithet he has striven to prove himself useful to leaders of Grigory and earn recognition for his own merits and action. Vicious ruthless and utterly contemptuous of beings other than the fallen (especially humans who he regards as God's greatest mistake) he has made a name of himself as a powerful (for a two winged angel anyways ) member of the Stars' faction**

Needless to say, Ben knew that from this moment, this battle wasn't going to be an easy one

The man on the other hand pondered for a while before a look of recognition spread all over his face and a maniacal grin started to form as he descended from the sky.

"Hmm~ You nearly got me last time. So lady Raynare was right, A Kyuubi hybrid did emerge in this town, with a sacred gear nonetheless. And a strong one at that. I can feel power within you" Missing the look of surprise on Ben's face at hearing Raynare's name, another incredibly sharp glowing jedi saber like projectile dancing on his fingertips as he continued further, "I certainly didn't expect our second target to appear in front of me when I was about to deal with the first one."

"I don't believe I have the pleasure to know you or this Raynare you speak of." Ben remarked as he took a fighting stance, " Though considering what just happened moments ago, I think you guys might have ruined the encounter.

 ***PING***

 **AN EMERGENCY CHALLENGE HAS BEEN ISSUED!**

 **Duels and Challenges**

 **At certain points, you will be challenged to spars, duels and challenges by other people. These are a version of quests , that not only grant incredible amount of EXP depending on the difficulty of challenge as well as hidden bonuses and rewards. Beware though ; the consequences of failing a challenge are sometimes quite dire , and often irrevocable.**

 **You have been challenged to a showdown by the Dohnaseek, rogue angel belonging to the Stars faction**

 **Main objective : Show the Stars faction their place by beating the crap out of their agent**

 **Bonus Objectives**

 **Rescue Hyoudou Issei**

 **?**

 **?**

 **?**

 **?**

 **Conditions: [Gamer's Body] Disabled (Only applicable till the player reaches Lvl 50), [Gamer's mind] Disabled ( Only applicable till the player reaches Lvl 75) , Access to recovery items items blocked ( Only applicable till player reaches Lvl 30)**

 **Rewards: 10000 Exp! Increased reputation with Student Council! Increased reputation with Occult Research Club!**

 **Bonus rewards: 7000 Exp per objective, ?, ? ?**

 **Failure: Possible Death, Decreased reputation with Student Council, Greatly Increases reputation with Occult Research Club , Permanent loss to [Hero] and [Tennyson Charisma], Beginning of another great war amongst three factions**

 _Holy crap! this isn't something I signed up for_

The host of world serpent, gulped within himself, realizing that even having superpowers had its ups and downs.

" You are quick for a runt. But don't think I will be sparing you because of that. In the grand scheme of things, nothing a filthy hybrid like you do has the least bit of significance. You are just a worthless trash. Just don't forget to scream when I torture you!"." Dohnaseek let out a rather malicious smirk, leveling his glare towards Ben, before spinning the light spear around and hurling it towards his direction . The gamer responded by quickly throwing himself in opposite direction, once again surprising the fallen with his reflexes as he simultaneously dashed towards him with all his might.

" _You dodged my spear,_ AGAIN!" Dohnaseek snapped out of his shock as he manifested a pair of swords out of light, attempting to cut him off before he could reach him. However Ben immediately grabbed his wrist in an ironclad grip, blocking the strike using his metallic gauntlets. The fallen tried to push him back, but Ben didn't give much ground. Gritting his teeth Dohnaseek growled in frustration, " This strength, a filthy hybrid like you with dirty human blood running inside his veins shouldn't be able to match me in strength or dodge my blade twice!"

"Well, I do try my best to surpass people's expectations." Ben chuckled as he continued to pin the fallen against a tree, before launching a kick aimed at his knee.

The young Tennyson flinched a bit as his foot felt a little bit of the impact, he wasn't hurt in slightest but he could tell that the winged psycho was made of sterner stuff than he initially expected

The fallen angel on other hand felt it much more clearly as he let out a yelp of pain, stumbling backwards. However he still managed to dodge Ben's following roundhouse kick. Even though he looked like a villain out of some cheap cowboy flick, he was still halfway decent when it came to fighting.

Regaining his lost balance using the pair of giant wings emerging from his back, Dohnaseek screamed in outrage. In an instant new light spears manifested over both of his shoulders, which he hurled towards from almost point blank range. The only way to not get hit was to get out of the way, which Ben did by performing a backflip. The way those things managed to smash and burn through the ground with frightening ease, he didn't want to be anywhere near them.

The next instant, Dohnaseek had launched himself at Ben with all of his might, hoping to end his distracted enemy right there and then . However Ben just flashed the fallen a wider grin before suddenly dropping his foot on the ground. Dohnaseek blinked in mid flight , his expression unchanging as he observed the Kitsune's actions carefully.

 **"Ki Sprint "** Right before he was about to make impact, Ben chirped as if he was revving some sort of engine inside his body, suddenly dropping his foot on the ground with a loud thump

Dohnaseek's eyes widened the moment he heard the thump, because the exact moment the rookie kitsune set his foot on the ground, he completely vanished from his sight, leaving nothing but a trail of dust behind.

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 _"Man! The Darkwing quack is sure annoying."_ Ben thought, glancing around and quickly taking a stock of his surroundings, " _I need to finish this off before I run out of time. Time to hit back"_ And hard. But how and with what? That was the question.

What did he have in arsenal he could throw at this guy?

The [ **Vortex of Fire ]** should have been more than enough to take him out but Ben had already used it once, Albeit unknowingly, which mean that now he had to wait for twenty four hours before getting another shot at it. For all its crazy fire power, the skill did have an absurd cool-down period. He contemplated using **[Ki Sprint]** to blindside him by his speed and try to get in close, but that consumed a lot of MP and the fallen was no pushover in close quarters, possessing extreme amount of durability , strength which rivalled his own and a very good aim. In addition to all that, there seemed to be no limit to his ability to produce those light spears. That pretty much ruled out anything involving trying to get around and go toe to toe with him.

Ben concluded that he needed to get this brute with something big, but also something he couldn't expect. Something he couldn't see.

Granted, he had his **[Soul Crash]** but using that attack put him in a vulnerable position, especially if that didn't manage to take him out in one shot. Besides without **[Gamer's body]** enduring all the pain and exhaustion was going to rather difficult. Beside he was concealed behind a tree...

 _Wait a minute..._

Ben's eyes widened in realization as his hand brushed against the sturdy bark of the oak tree and looked up. The gears inside his mind started rolling , the young gamer noticed how massive the tree actually was. The sheer width of its trunk, number of branches it had and how much it could possibly weigh just based on it's size alone. After patting his hand against the trunk a couple of times, Ben looked over his shoulder, sensing that the fallen was now perfectly positioned , right on the point of maximum impact.

 _Oh, this will do nicely_

There was suddenly a loud tap that echoed out from the woods behind him, followed shortly by a holler which caught Dohnaseek's attention. Alarmed, the fallen looked straight down to his right, where he saw the blurred form of Ben reappearing right beneath his shadow.

"Take this you pest!" The Fallen immediately spun around with a battle cry, forming a dozen light spears above him. A simple flick of his wrist sent them at Ben, intent on turning his foe into a human pincushion

Grinning from ear to ear, Ben leapt off of the side of his cover, turned to face at his winged nemesis as he brought forth an aluminium coated baseball bat from his inventory "HEY DOHNA-BITCH! CATCH."

The young gamer shouted before muttering **[ Soul crash ]** under his breath and smacked the largest Oak tree in the park with all of his might.

Almost of instantly, a blast of wind rocketed off of the side from where Ben hit it. Winds tearing up the grounds and kicking up dust as an invisible force slammed the user backwards, smashing him on the floor with a powerful stomp . Seconds later, the large oak was ripped out from the ground by it's roots and propelled straight into Dohnaseek's incoming light spear barrage.

Because of the sheer size of the tree, density of it's trunk, the speed it was travelling at, the distance it was thrown at and the fact that it was propelled by the a variant of explosive touki used by a nine tailed fox, meant that when the enormous projectile collided with much smaller light spears, it literally obliterated it before continuing straight for the fallen angel who had just finished pouring an immense amount of energy in his last attack.

Upon getting his light spears obliterated by a flying tree, Dohnaseek's eyes bugged out of their sockets.

Destroying a small boulder was one thing , destroying a full-grown oak travelling at the exact same speed as an airborne missile was another.

The fallen angel threw his arms up to the guard and let out a girlish shriek of terror, "OH SHIIIIIT!" Unable to fly away in time, the tree smashed into the fallen angel, sending both of them straight into the abandoned construction site.

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 **I refined the Battle scene a bit, I felt that part was kinda rushed.**


End file.
